


Welcome Home Max

by Fearmyboxers



Category: Camp Camp (Web Series)
Genre: A lot of Dadvid content, Adoption, Angst, Bad Parenting, David is Max's guardian, David is rich, M/M, Masturbation, Max has a crush on David, Maxvid - Freeform, READ NOTES, Slash, They aren't going to do anything together till Max is 17, They will swtich
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-04
Updated: 2017-10-09
Packaged: 2018-12-23 18:34:43
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 12
Words: 24,676
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11995596
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fearmyboxers/pseuds/Fearmyboxers
Summary: The camp is finally shut down by the F.B.I, David and Gwen have to leave, and only Max is left of the children. David is the only option to get him home, but the situation changes after David finally meets the boy's parents.





	1. Bye Bye Camp Campbell

**Author's Note:**

> I know I should have been working on my other fandom fics, I also have a couple Voltron fics planned, but a friend decided to get me into this fandom. I've only been in this fandom since 8/30/17, but I'm already in love with the show and characters. David is NOT going to do anything to 10 year old Max, I want to state that right now....at least not in this fic....I make no promises for future fics. The first chapter might be a little eh, but I'll be working on the next chapters soon.

David stood next to the flag pole, giving the flag a salute, tears in his eyes. “I guess this is it...Camp Campbell is...is…” He started to wail, hugging the flag pole.

“For fucks sake! Get a hold of yourself!” Max walked toward the crying man. “It is just a camp, if you love camping so much, why not just find another camp to work at? You guys brought this on yourselves. How long did you expect this con to even last? Of course, the parents were going to be horrified and worried about their kids safety. They still don’t even know have the shit that went on here.” He shoved his hands into his hoodie pockets. “Just be grateful none of the parents are taking this out on you and Gwen, they could have sued both of your asses.”

“...Max please don’t jinx us.” Gwen pinched the bridge of her nose. “Right now, we need to get in contact with your parents and arrange for you to get home. The Quartermaster left with the bus and we have no idea if he is going to be coming back or when we’re going to be kicked out of camp by the F.B.I as they search the place for more evidence.”

With a couple sniffles, David wiped his tears away. “...Max, let us call your parents and let them know you need to go home….” Sluggishly, he headed toward the counselor cabin, resting his hand against the door. Tears welled up in his eyes again, his lip quivering.

Max kicked David hard in the back of his leg. “Move it, let's get this shit show over with and call my parents, not that they are going to care…” The boy kicked the cabin door open and walked in.

After trying the numbers Max gave him to be able to call his parents, a few of them being numbers to phone sex lines that Max had seen on tv, David was finally able to reach Max’s mother. “I….Yes...No, you don’t….Now just wait one second! Max did nothing wrong, there are just some….complications...and all the campers are returning home. If there isn’t a way you or your husband can make it, I can drive him home mysel-” David’s hand tightened on the phone. “If you would please just-. I will be arriving in two days to bring Max home! Please be home when we arrive, as I wish to make sure he gets home safely. Yes and-...” He looked startled for a moment, looked at the phone, and let out a sigh as he hung it up.

“You don’t have to drive me home you know. I can find my own way back if I have to.” Max sat on David’s bed. “I knew they weren’t going to want to pick me up. I bet she even asked if there was some way you could just throw me in some other camp for the rest of the summer.”

Pressing his lips into a thin line, his eyes still red from crying, David went over to Max. “I know you hate hugs, but I really think both of us could benefit from one right about now…”

“If you fucking touch me, I am going to kill you!” Max screamed, getting pulled into a hug by David. He struggled for a bit, then groaned, and hugged the man back. “I hate you…” he mumbled into David’s chest, tears in his eyes.

“I know buddy, I know….” David patted Max on the back, pulling back from the hug. “Tomorrow morning, I’ll take you back home. I know we’ve had a lot of issues, you joking about killing me, and all those imaginative games you, Neil, and Nikki played. But, I really think deep down you are a good kid.” He placed his hands on Max’s shoulders. “Do not let anyone tell you different….You are only ten years old, you have a bright future ahead of you. It might have a few bumps along the way, but the future is what you make it.”

Max squinted his eyes at David. “You aren’t a camp counselor anymore...so you can cut the bullshit now.”

David flinched being reminded that he wasn’t a counselor now. “It isn’t bullshit. I mean it. Now, you should go to your tent and rest up. We have a long drive ahead of us in the morning.”

Neither Max or David were able to fall asleep that night. Max was worried about David meeting his parents and what his parents were going to say or do. David spent the whole night crying into his pillow and gathering his belongings. Both David and Gwen were going to leave the camp in the morning, David didn’t really want to see them tear the place up.

In the morning, David and Gwen were outside packing the Volkswagen. “I’ll go wake Max up.” Gwen told David, placing a hand on his shoulder, walking toward Max’s tent. Max opened the tent flap, causing Gwen to let out a yell. “Jesus Christ kid! I thought you’d still be asleep this early!”

“I wasn’t able to get to sleep and I heard the two of you out here.” Max fixed his backpack straps on his shoulders, holding Mr. Honey Nuts in his arms. “Gwen….um…” He glanced over toward David. “...Would you be able to drive me back instead of David?”

Gwen’s left eye scrunched up in confusion. “Huh? Why do you want me to take you and not David?”

Max squeezed his teddy bear close. “Forget it...it doesn’t matter who takes me home.”

“Max…” Gwen kneeled down. “You know David really cares about you right? If you have something you are scared about, we can figure something out to make sure you are safe. David won’t leave you if you are in any sort of danger at home.”

“Why the fuck are you guys so nice to me! I’ve been nothing but a fucking problem since I came to this camp! I know you’ve only put up with me cause it is...WAS...your JOB! Stop trying to manipulate me with your fake ass niceness!” Max screamed, breathing heavily, the tears streaming down his cheeks. He heard a loud sob, turning his head to look at the crying David. “You stop that! You are so emotional! It pisses me off! I...I…” He couldn’t control the sobs that erupted from him.

David and Gwen hugged Max tightly, both David and Max unable to stop crying. “Damn it you idiots…” Gwen muttered, her own eyes stinging with tears. “All I ever thought about was leaving this fucking job and you assholes behind, then you go and make me wish none of this happened.”

After they were finally able to pull themselves together, Max shoved the both of them away and headed for the car. For a while the car was silent, Max in the back seat looking out the window, Gwen in the passenger’s seat with her eyes closed, and David paying attention to the road.

“This is the bus station why are we here?” Max finally broke the silence, looking to the two adults in the front seats.

“This is my stop kid.” Gwen opened the door on her side. “This pile of junk car is Camp Campbell property and even if we could try to use it to our final stops, it would never make it.” She pulled her luggage from the trunk. “If you guys ever want to keep in touch, find me on social media. I honestly can’t say it’s been great knowing the two of you all summer, but...I guess I’ve gotten used to you.” She smirked. “Max grow up to be a good adult and David, just grow up.”

David was already crying again, standing outside the car. “I’ll miss you, Gwen.” The twenty-four-year-old held his arms out to her for a hug.

Gwen let out a small laugh. “Fine...one more hug.” She hugged David, giving Max a sideways smile. “Don’t worry kid, I’m sure you are pretty hugged out from earlier.” She pulled away from David.

David and Max were beside the car, watching Gwen run to catch her bus. “Well, I guess all that’s left to do is get you home now.” He glanced at Max. “My car is over here.” The redhead grabbed his own luggage, heading to the gated Sleepy Peak bus station parking lot.

“You have your own car, but still drove that crappy car?” Max asked, following behind David.

“Well...I don’t really like using my own car around these parts you see and it was a great honor to be given the keys to Cameron Campbell’s volkswagen..Ahh...If only things hadn’t ended up like this.” David let out a sigh, taking out a set of keys, and hitting the unlock button.

“You have a Jag?!” Max’s eyes were wide, his jaw dropped.

“Hm? Oh...Hahaha...Yeah.” David rubbed the back of his neck, the trunk of his forest green, Jaguar XF popped open for them to put their things in. “I really liked this model.” On the rear window, there were little white decals of a man, a bunch of tents, trees, and happy children. Max also noticed the Campe Diem license plate with the Camp Campbell salute.

“Dude..this is like a thirty something thousand dollar car! How the fuck do you have one?!” Max threw his arm out toward the car. “There is no way being a counselor paid enough for you to afford this.” He squinted his eyes at David. “Are you some kind of secret gangster or a pimp or something?”

“What?! Oh goodness no!” David finished loading their things into the trunk of his car. “I could never even live off the money I would have made as a camp counselor! I did that for free!” He placed a hand on the car. “My parents left me some money when they died...I don’t really like to talk about it.” With a small sad smile, he went to the driver’s side of the car. “Come along Max, we don’t want to keep your parents waiting.”

Max stared at David, feeling a very small twinge of guilt hearing that David’s parents were dead. He wanted to tell David he was sorry his parents were dead, he wanted to try and make a joke out of it to lighten the mood, but now he felt he understood some of why David wanted parents day to go well. His stomach hurt thinking about how in a few hours, David would be meeting his parents.

Letting out a heavy sigh, Max went to open the back seat door, but it wouldn’t open. “Yo, idiot, you didn’t unlock the door!” the ten-year-old glared at the door handle, pulling on it repeatedly, even though he knew it was locked, and David hadn’t even had a chance to unlock it yet.

“Why don’t you sit up front with me for the ride home?” David asked, his eyes wide and hopeful. Frowning when Max continued to mess with the backseat door. “Come on Max...this may be the last time we ever see each other. Can’t you just sit up front with me?”

“Fine! Whatever!” Max groaned, pulling the passenger side door open and plopping down into the seat. He put his seat belt on, crossing his arms around Mr. Honey nuts in protest afterward. “Can we PLEASE not listen to the fucking farmer's almanac and have some real music for the rest of the trip?”

Getting into the car, David buckled in. “You can put the radio on any station you want when we are on the road. We can stop somewhere along the way and pick up something to eat.” He smiled, starting the car.

Once they were finally on the road, David having to stop and thank the bus station workers for taking care of his car all summer. Max leaned over and turned the radio on loudly, blasting the car with hardcore rap. The current song playing was about a man who killed a rival gang member, then went to jail, raped his way to top dog and shanked a bunch of guys, then was released.

David continued to drive with his eye twitching, his teeth gritting together, and his hands tight on the wheel of his car; after all, he’d told Max he could listen to anything he wanted. After a couple songs that were nothing but gangster rap and talking about shooting up the police, David’s shaking hand turned the volume down to a more manageable volume.

“M-maybe we can listen to something a little less...um..intense?” David glanced at Max pleadingly.

“Urg fine.” Max fiddled with the radio finding another station he liked that was a little more relaxing.

“Thank you, Max…” David placed a hand on his own chest above his slowly calming down heart. “We’re coming up on a rest stop, would you like to get something to eat?” Max just shrugged. “I’ll take that as a yes.” It was going to be a very long road trip, both in time and mentally.

 

TBC


	2. Chapter 2

David rubbed his thumbs into his steering wheel, Max eating a burger and leaning back in his seat with his feet on the dash. “Max, when you finish your burger, I think you should try to get some sleep.” David kept his eyes on the long stretch of road out of Sleepy Peak. “It is going to be a long drive and I don’t want you getting sick from lack of sleep.”

Max pushed the last of his burger into his mouth. “Speak for yourself, idiot. I get you are usually an insomniac, but you are driving. If anyone in this car needs sleep it is fucking you, before you get us killed.”

Looking at his watch, David let out a small sigh. “I guess we both could do with a little nap. I told your parents I would get you home by tomorrow, so we have plenty of time for a few winks.” He smiled. “I’ll find a nice motel for us to get some rest and relaxation!”

“Whatever you say, David.” Max looked out the window. “My parents could care less when or if you bring me back. They would probably rather we get in a crash and die, just so they could sue the camp….ha...would serve them right to know camp is shut down and they’d get nothing.”

“Oh...oh Max….” David’s eyes started to fill with tears, the car swerving. “No one should have to feel like this about their parents or children!”

“Keep your fucking attention on the road!” Max yelled, holding onto his seat.

“Ah! Right...Sorry about that!” David wiped his already red and puffy eyes. “Woo...Today has just been a very stressful and emotional day for me. I can’t help but be emotional when I think about what could possibly be going through your parents' heads.” His hands tightened on his steering wheel. “You are a good kid Max. I’m really glad you came to Camp Campbell this year.”

“Yeah...whatever…” Max breathed out. “Let's just find that damn motel or whatever….”

David’s heart felt it was breaking, how could Max’s parents be so cold about their child to not care about his well-being. Sure, Max had shown a lot of problematic actions during his time at camp, but he was still just a child and wanted the attention that his parents wouldn’t give him. David felt a little...angry….over the phone conversation he’d had with Max’s mother and felt the need to have a stern talking to both the boy’s parents.

After another hour of driving, David pulled into a hotel. “You know David.” Max walked with David toward the hotel. “Bringing an underaged boy, who is obviously not your kid, if I made a scene it could look like you are trying to-”

David’s face turned bright red. “MAX! Don’t you dare!” He stopped in his tracks and stared at the ten-year-old. His shoulders were shaking, his eyes stung still and were dried out, and now his heart was beating fast from the fear of someone assuming he was some sort of pedophile that kidnapped some kid.

“Chill! I’m joking. For all they care you could be like my step dad or foster parent or even that I just take after my mom.” Max shook his head. “It also isn’t so much fun fucking with you now.”

“Please Max...try to behave. We’re only going to be here for a couple hours and back on the road.” David placed a hand to his own chest, taking a deep breath.

“You know, only renting a room for a couple of hours also-”

“MAX!”

After getting them a room, David and Max picked their beds, and David set the alarm for them to wake up. Max turned to his side, holding Mr. Honey Nuts close, feeling a little guilty for stressing David out. “David?” His voice low and his back to David.

“Yes, Max?” David was laying on his back, looking at the ceiling, glancing at Max’s back when the boy said his name.

“I’m sorry about...about everything. You really are a good guy and I’ve been a total dick all summer. Thank you for everything.” Max curled up a little bit. “My parents didn’t care about my interest at all, but you really did try to make camp fun.” He heard David’s bed squeak from him moving. “Don’t you dare try to hug me!”

“I’m really going to miss you, Max. Promise me you won’t let your parents win by making you feel like this anymore. You are a smart and resourceful kid, I’ve seen you do so much at camp that has made me so proud of you.” David laid back down, closing his eyes.

There was a stumbling sound and suddenly, David felt small arms wrapped around him. He glanced down and Max was hugging him tightly, burying his face into David’s side. “Don’t say anything else you fucking asshole…” Max was fighting his tears, hugging David as tightly as he could.

David placed a hand on Max’s head and ran it through his hair, petting him lightly, and putting one of his arms around him. They both fell asleep together in that position, Max’s head resting on David’s chest, and David’s hand on Max’s back.

When the alarm went off, Max let out and groan, pressing himself more into the warmth of David’s body. “Come on Max, it is time to wake up.” David’s voice was soft, his hand still on Max’s back.

Eyes popping open, Max quickly shoved David off the bed and jumped out of the bed himself. “Fuck! Don’t you ever tell anyone about this David! I will kill you!” The boy pointed his shaking finger at David, his face bright red.

“Of course Max…” David smiled. “Get Mr. Honey Nuts and we’ll be on our way.”

Letting out a huff, Max grabbed his teddy bear and followed David to the front desk to check out. His heart still pounding really hard in his chest, watching David be his usual annoyingly friendly self to the hotel employees. The color slowly draining from his face as he started to piece together the feelings that he was getting from being around David.

“All set! Let's get you home.” David paused seeing the panicked look on Max’s face. “Are you alright? Do you feel sick?” He reached over to put his hand on Max’s forehead, the boy jumping back away from him, breathing heavy panicked breaths. “Max?”

“It’s nothing! Let's just get the fuck out of here!” Max clutched Mr. Honey Nuts and moved quickly to the car. “I want to lay in the back seat for the rest of the trip.”

David’s face fell, frowning. He had thought he and Max had finally made a breakthrough and that Max was finally opening up to him. With his shoulders slacked he walked back to the car behind Max, unlocking the back door for him. “Did I do something to upset you, Max?” He asked, looking in his rearview mirror.

Max looked at the floor of the car, his toes digging into the soles of his shoes nervously. “No, you didn’t do anything wrong, David. It’s nothing….Just….Just get me home okay?”

“Okay Max….” David started the car and turned the radio back on for Max.

The rest of the trip, neither of them said a word to each other, David thought about it a couple times, but didn’t want to risk upsetting Max anymore. As they headed into the city, Max finally broke the silence. “Stop! Park here, I’ll walk the rest of the way. You don’t want to bring this kind of car into my neighborhood.”

“Max, I am not going to let you walk home alone. I am responsible for you.” David parked the car. “And if your neighborhood is dangerous, I am definitely staying with you till I am sure you are safe.”

“Urg, god you are so annoying.” Max unbuckled himself, exiting the car with David, getting his suitcase and backpack out of the trunk; making sure to put Mr. Honey Nuts in his backpack so no one else would see him.

As the two of them headed down the sidewalk toward Max’s home, David began to get increasingly more worried about Max’s living situations. They passed about three hookers, that were obvious and there were maybe more, two drug dealers fighting over turf, and he could hear different couples screaming at each other from different homes. There was also a lot of litter and things David didn’t even want to think about what they could be.

“Max I….” David looked around nervously, Max signaling him to just be quiet and keep moving.

Eventually, they arrived at Max’s apartment complex. “Okay, you escorted me home safely. You can go now, not that you might be any safer walking back to your car alone.” Max put his hands into his hoodie pocket. “This is why I wanted you to just stay in the car and let me walk home by myself, I can take care of myself.”

David straightened up, saluting Max with the Camp Campbell salute. “I am a Camp Campbell, Camp Counselor and I would never allow you to be left alone in this sort of environment without your parents.”

“Were a counselor, you keep forgetting you lost your job.” Max led David into the building and knocked on his apartment door. There was no answer, he let out a sigh. “They aren’t home.”

“What?...But I told them I’d be bringing you back today….They should be here.” David walked up to the door and knocked harder for Max. “Hello? Um, I’ve brought Max home!”

“Get a fucking clue, David! They don’t care, they never have and never will! They probably didn’t come home or wait around, because you let them know in advance you’d be bringing me home.” Max felt ill, digging his fingers into his stomach. “It’s alright for you to leave me here David, I’ll sit at the door till they come home.” Max sat down in front of the door.

“No.” David sat down beside Max. “We will both wait here till they return. I am not leaving you, Max.”

Max turned his head away, he hated that he didn’t hate David. Both of them sat in front of the door to wait for Max’s parents to come home.

 

TBC


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you guys like this chapter o.o I was debating if it was as good as I originally planned it out to be in my head and if I should rewrite it.

Both Max and David sat in front of the apartment door for three hours, Max tried to get David to leave a couple times, before giving up completely. A few of Max’s neighbors walked by them, giving them strange looks, and in one apartment they could hear the sounds of a couple having loud sex. David had reached over to cover Max’s ears, but the boy hit his hands away and let him know he was used to it.

Finally, a young man and woman came laughing out of the stairwell, hanging all over each other. Their laughter stopping when they saw Max and David. “Oh rigghht...the bra...Max was coming home today. Completely slipped my mind.” The woman said, sneering in Max’s direction. “How long have you be sitting there?”

David got to his feet his fist balled to his sides, but he gave a friendly smile to the woman. He walked over to them, putting a hand out to shake their hands, but was ignored. “I can understand some things slipping you mind mam, but this is your son, and I called to make sure you or your husband would be here for when I arrived with him.”

Max’s mother’s face twisted into a fake smile. “Thank you for taking care of my son these last….what was it two and a half months?” She waved a hand dismissively. “Either way, your job is done and you can go back to doing, whatever.” She walked toward Max, grabbing his arm roughly and pulling him up, causing Max to make a pained face; but he didn’t let out a sound.

“Do you like want us to pay you for bringing him back or something? Cause you were supposed to keep him for three months. We didn’t pay you guys to return him early.” Max’s father smelled heavily of cigarettes and booze.

“I don’t want any money, I just wanted to make sure Max got home safely.” David glanced at Max and his mother, seeing the woman’s sharp nails digging into Max’s arm. “Mam, I would like to ask you to please release his arm.”

“What?” Max’s mother let out a questioning laugh. “He is my son and he is fine, aren’t you Max?” Her nails pressed harder into Max’s arm.

Max flinched, but still didn’t cry out. “I’m fine David, thank you for bringing me home....” He had his face looking away from David, not wanting him to see the face he was making.

“What kind of manners are those?! Look at an adult when you speak to them!” Max’s mother grabbed Max by the chin, forcing him to look at David, squeezing it. “Now, tell him.”

Max repressed a small whimper, tears on the brink of falling from his eyes as he looked at David with a fake smile. “I’m really fine David, I had a great time at camp and thank you for returning me safely to my parents…”

“Good boy.” Max’s mother opened the door to the apartment, shoving Max inside, kicking his things in behind him. “Go to your room now, your dad and I had a long night.”

David stared in horror at how Max’s mother treated him and that Max’s father just played some app on his phone while it happened. “I...I can not leave Max here.” David moved toward the door to stop Max’s parents from going inside. “This is not how parents should treat their children! This is clearly abuse!”

“Abuse?!” Max’s mother jammed her finger into David’s chest. “You going to try and tell me how I should raise my OWN child? Just because you watched him for your job at a camp for unwanted little brats? What? Did he act like a good little kid all summer and not his usual useless self?”

David’s shoulders rose and he was trying really hard to keep calm. “Digging your nails into your son’s skin and this verbal abuse tells me that this isn’t the only time you have harmed Max. I would kindly like to request you stop laying your hands on him and calling him useless. Max is a great boy, he made a lot of friends at camp and gained many new skills. Telling a ten-year-old he is useless and treating him this way could cause permanent self-esteem issues. You should be nurturing him and letting him show you how smart he is.”

“Look, you either fuck off, get out of our way, and let us parent our son our way. Or we are going to have a serious fucking problem here.” Max’s father finally put his phone away, putting a hand on his wife’s shoulder. “He isn’t your kid and we’ve raised him for ten goddamn years! I think we know exactly what that shit is worth.”

“I’m sorry…” David let out a breath.

“Good, now fuc-” Max’s father was cut off by David’s fist meeting his face.

Max’s mother let out a shrill, dramatic scream, as her husband was tackled to the floor by David. “Get off him! Someone help!”

“David, stop! Don’t do this!” Max screamed, his eyes wide, seeing both his father and David swinging punches at each other. “They aren’t worth it! DAVID!”

Max’s father punched David in the stomach, David grabbing a large chunk of Max’s father’s hair and giving it a good yank. Max’s father punched David in the face, while David kicked him in the nuts. Max’s mother pulled on the back of David’s shirt, trying to get him off her husband. Max watched, his legs shaking, as neighbors came to see what was happening. Two neighbors pulled the fight apart, both men breathing heavily and trying to fight still.

“Huff…Huff...If you fucking think you could do better and care so fucking much, why don’t you fucking raise the little bastard!” Max’s dad yelled, being held by a large neighbor.

“Fine! Sign over all your rights as his parents and I’ll adopt Max! He fucking deserves better than the both of you!” David yelled back.

“Fine! Call a fucking lawyer or something and bring us the papers and we will!” Max’s father yelled, but less angrily.

“I will! I have my lawyer on speed dial and he will be here within the hour!” David was released by the neighbor holding him and he pulled out his phone.

“Wait are we seriously doing this?” Max’s mother questioned, looking at her husband.

“Why the fuck not? It gets the kid out of our lives.” Max’s father was released and he wiped his bloody nose. “You wanted the abortion and I’m the one who said you should still have him.”

Max couldn’t move, he had tears streaming down his face, his heart felt like it was being stomped on, and he was really confused about what was even happening anymore. He felt sick, he managed to force himself to move and run to the bathroom to vomit from all the stress he was now under.

For the next couple hours, Max hid in his bedroom closet, trying to calm down from his panic attack. He could hear all the fancy lawyer talk going on between his parents and David’s lawyer in the living room. He was in between many emotions, but confusion and anxiety were really high with his stress levels. On one hand, David cared enough about him that he got into a fight with his dad, on the other hand, his parents were really quick to just let David adopt him and get rid of him.

“Max?....” David’s voice came into the room. “I’m sorry all this happened...I… I just couldn’t in good conscience leave.” He kneeled in front of the closet. “Will you please come out...I shouldn’t have lost my cool like that.”

The closet door opened slowly, Max looking at David with a dead stare. “What are you now? I’m not fucking calling you dad.”

“I wouldn’t force you to. I can still be David to you, but I am your legal guardian now.” David reached a hand out to Max. “I won’t ever treat you like you are useless Max.”

“....Asshole…” Max jumped out of the closet at David, giving him a tight hug, sobbing into his chest.

“Shh...Everything is going to be alright now Max…” David rubbed Max’s back, feeling Max hiccup.

David and Max went around the room, packing up what Max wanted to take with him, not needing to take any furniture as David said that would already be taken care of. David held Max’s belongings in his arms, heading toward the door, stopping to see Max taking Mr. Honey Nuts out of his backpack.

“.....” Max placed the bear on the coffee table. “Goodbye, Mr. Honey Nuts…”

David blinked. “Max? Why are you leaving your bear?”

“This bear was given to me on the day I was born….It represented my parents love for me…” Max looked at David, tears in his already red eyes. “But they don’t love me, David….”

“Max…” David walked over to Mr. Honey Nuts, picking him up and giving him back to Max. “Their love or lack of love for you shouldn’t matter, you love this bear, and I know he is really important to you.” David looked at the closed bedroom door of Max’s parents. “Mr. Honey Nuts is full of your love.”

Placing the bear back in his backpack, the two of them left the apartment, and back toward David’s car. It was really late now, but it was a lot less scary of a feeling as they returned to the car. To David’s relief, his car was fine, and they were able to put Max’s belongings in it. Max moved into the front seat of the Jaguar XF, buckling in, and watched David get in beside him. The sickness Max was feeling wasn’t going away, he even felt a little dizzy. He went from realizing that he actually had a crush on David, to seeing David get in a violent fight with his dad, to now being adopted by him.

This summer sure was a weird one.

 

TBC


	4. Chapter 4

“Your nose is bleeding again…” Max handed David a tissue from the glove compartment.

“Thank you, Max.” David kept his eyes on the road, pressing the tissue to his nose, his cheek starting to bruise from where Max’s father had punched him. “I know everything has been...a little out of hand….” He put the tissue into his pocket. “But once you are settled in, I promise things will get better.”

“Mmhm..” Max just wanted to not be in a car stuck so close to David for a longer period of time.

David drove down a little dirt road that was surrounded by trees. Reaching up, he hit a button on his rearview mirror, and Max watched as they passed a gate. The car pulled up to a small cabin and David turned it off with a smile. “Alright, time to bring your stuff into the house and you can pick out which room you want.”

Max gave David a weird look, getting out of the car, and thrusting his arms out at the cabin. “You actually live in a cabin in the woods when you aren’t at the fucking camp?!” He looked around at all the trees, then back at David. “What do you mean pick out my room? That cabin doesn’t even look like it is big enough for even one room!”

“Oh...um…” David’s eyes darted a little, taking Max’s things out of the trunk. “This isn’t where you will be staying, unless you really wanted to! I can even step up a tent and it could be just li-”

Max held up a hand, glaring at David. “No to the tent. But, what do you mean this isn’t where I will be staying?”

“It isn’t that much of a walk, only passed that grove of trees there!” David pointed with Max’s bag of stuff partly covering his face. “Come on, I’ll show you!” The red-haired man headed into the forest, with Max pulling his backpack on to follow after him, dragging his suitcase behind him.

Pushing through a hedge of bushes, Max dropped the handle of his suitcase. His eyes were wide, his head turning like a toy toward David. “Are you, FUCKING KIDDING ME?!” He screamed throwing his arms up in the air, turning to look back at the three story mansion.

“Language Max, I’ve been letting it slide because of everything that has been going on.” David walked toward the mansion.

“SUCK A DICK DAVID! What are you going to do spank me?! Ground me?! No of course not, you would just want to give me a fucking hug!” Max made a face, grabbing his suitcase and following behind David again. “I can’t believe you are rich, but still worked as a camp counselor and have your own cabin in the middle of the woods. That you apparently own?”

“....Like I said before Max, my parents left me some money.” The twenty-four-year-old unlocked the front door. “I don’t really like to talk about it and I happened to like working at Camp Campbell. I put a lot of money toward preserving the camp just as it was when I was a child, I even gave Campbell a lot of donations to keep the camp running.”

“Well that explains how camp was fixed quickly and how when the committee came you were able to get all that fancy outdoor equipment.” Max walked into the mansion looking around. “But you do know Campbell probably never used a cent of what you gave him for the camp right?”

David’s bottom lip quivered. “I’m beginning to see that.” He stopped at the stairs. “Which floor would you like your room to be?”

“Third floor I guess, get a good lay of the land, in case I decide to ditch your ass and run away someday.” Max cringed when David turned to him with a crestfallen face. “I’m joking you idiot, don’t make that face at me…But the third floor will be good.”

Climbing up the couple flights of stairs, David showed Max each room and the view they had, and Max picked the largest room that had a nice view of the back yard. There was already a bed in the room, it was covered in plastic to keep it from getting dirty while no one was using it, as well as a large dresser, but the rest of the room was pretty empty for its size.

“We’ll get you some things to make this feel more like home for you soon Max. We can even get you a new bed if you don’t like this one, will you be alright with this much for a couple days?” David placed the bag on the floor.

“David, I slept in an old cot in a shitty camp for two and a half months.” Max’s eye was scrunched up. “This is fine. You don’t have to spend money on me, I can make do on my own.”

David put his hands on his hips. “Max, I want you to feel comfortable and feel at home here. I am your guardian now and I want what is best for you. I am not going to try to be a replacement for your parents, not that they were much of parents, but I do care for you Max and I want to make sure you are happy.”

Max’s face turned red, his right hand gripping his left arm tightly. “Stop saying shit like that, that you want me to be happy, that you care for me. You thought I was bad at camp, now you have to actually live with me all year round. You will get sick of me too...fucking hell…” Max was pulled into a tight hug by David. “Stop hugging me!”

“I’m sorry Max...I just can’t help it! You are such a good kid, I hate that you have those kinds of thoughts.” David pulled back from the hug. “I know you hate hugs, I will try to respect your personal space…” He dropped his arms away from Max, kneeling in front of him. “I usually sleep in the cabin, but I’ll be staying here at the mansion with you. If there is ever anything you need, just come to my room, it is the one I didn’t show you at the end of the hall. It faces my cabin and gives me a good view of the forest.”

“You are really always like this aren’t you?” Max let out a sigh. “I’ll keep it in mind. There are still two weeks before summer is over, what am I going to do about school? Do you have a job or do you just live off your dead parents’ money? Does Gwen know you have all this money while she was trying really hard to find a job because of the like no pay she was getting from camp?”

“I….” David looked a little guilty, standing up. “I probably should have tried to do more for the camp. I should have noticed how bad things were and I should have paid Gwen myself.” Rubbing the back of his neck, he let out a groan. “I’ll probably send Gwen a check or something as a thank you for all her hard work.” He moved to the bed to start taking the plastic off. “As for school, I will check out the schools in the area and find one for you.”

“You better not send me to some rich kid school, I will fucking kill you if you do!” Max’s tone was loud, but not really angry. He started to help David with removing the plastic. “You still didn’t say what kind of job you have or if you even have one. I don’t think many jobs would let you take summer’s off to work at a camp.”

“Actually, I’m a substitute teacher!” David announced happily.

“Of course you fucking are!” Max slammed his head into the bed to let out a frustrated scream.

David let out a disapproving noise, but knew that getting at Max about his language would just make him curse more. “I need to go back to the car for my things, will you be alright to put your stuff away?” Max gave a shrug as his answer. “I’ll be back soon, then we can either order some food or I can make us something to eat.”

“Pizza sounds pretty good right about now…” Max thought back to parents’ day, a small smile forming.

“Great! Pizza it is!” David smiled and exited the room.

Max spent the rest of the time waiting for pizza, just exploring the rest of the mansion. It was so weird to find out David was loaded and a substitute teacher, but he figured that would also explain why David was so happy all the time. If he was a normal poor substitute that worked as a counselor on the side to live, he’d probably be a mess like Gwen; Neil and Nikki were never going to believe him when he was able to contact them again.

To Max’s surprise, David had a full library, not to his surprise, a lot of books were camping related. David even had an office with pictures of his favorite students on the walls. There were a few empty guest rooms and bathrooms, but none of them looked to have been used in a long time. When David had come back in with his stuff, he’d given Max a small wave, before going to take care of his things.

Going into the kitchen, Max opened the fridge to see it was completely empty, the pantry had some canned foods, but the kitchen wasn’t stocked at all. “That idiot actually does live in that cabin…” He mumbled to himself. He looked out to the back yard, seeing that David had set it up like the camp activity field, but with obviously better equipment, and a full sized swimming pool.

Max was still not feeling the greatest, the sun was going down, and it was going to be weird being in such a big house with only David around. His stomach growled, reminding him that he’d vomited the food he’d eaten earlier, and it had been hours since. Walking to the dining room, he saw David paying the pizza man a large tip and thanking him for getting there quickly.

“Okay, Max! Pizza is here!” David headed to the table with the pizza box and a bag with a bottle of Max’s favorite soda. “After we eat, would you like to come to the store with me to pick up a couple things for the house? I should really get some groceries for the kitchen now that we’re both here.” He placed the box on the table in front of Max.

Opening the box, the smell of the pizza filled Max with a calm. “Yeah, sure, whatever. Shopping sounds like a good idea, just don’t be one of those annoying parents or I’ll cause a scene you got that?” While Max was talking, he had a piece of pizza in his hand, waving it around a little, before taking a bite “AHH! Hot hot hot!”

“Max! Here hold on, oh gosh dang.” David put the bottle of soda on the table opening it and handing it to Max. “I will go and get some cups, just drink it from the bottle right now!” David ran into the kitchen.

Putting the bottle to his mouth, Max quickly took a couple gulps and placed the bottle back on the table. “I probably should have let that cool off a bit more…” Max blew on the pizza to cool it off this time, before taking another bite. David was standing just outside the kitchen, holding two glasses, and smiling.

“Don’t eat all the pizza yourself, save some for me!” David joked, sitting down at the table across from Max.

“Should have bought your own David, I’m going to totally eat this whoooole box.” Max smirked.

David reached over, his hand hitting Max’s, and Max flinched slightly. “Oh!...I’m...I’m not going to hurt you, Max…” He took a piece of pizza. “I won’t ever hurt you…”

Max couldn’t exactly explain to David that it wasn’t what he thought, he couldn’t tell him that just his hand touching his hand made his heart flutter a little, and that was why he’d flinched. “I know that you dumbass.” Max grabbed his second slice. “You are too much of a nice guy. It is actually kind of annoying.” He blew on the slice and stuffed it into his mouth.

“I can’t wait to go to the store and pick up some of your favorite items! It is going to be so much fun, Max!” David’s excited tone had come back, but it was obviously laced with him trying to change the mood.

“Mmm…” Max just chewed his pizza.

  
  


TBC


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: Racial Slurs.

The final two weeks of summer seemed to go by fairly quickly, to Max’s surprise David really wasn’t pushing the whole guardian thing, and let Max know he’d let him have his space to get used to their new situation; that wasn’t to say David didn’t try to get Max to sit down for some family gaming on the weekend. They did end up enjoying a game of UNO the Saturday that had just passed, both winning once, and then having a tie breaker that Max won. It was also taking Max some time to get used to David being in normal clothes.

Max was actually happy living with David, not that he let David know that. David still annoyed him when he was being too happy, he constantly had to ask the man to at least tone down his joy meter. Max didn’t want to be a spoiled brat and use a lot of David’s money or make the idiot think he needed to spend a lot of money on him. So Max had only picked out a couple games and two game systems, as well as a laptop, and David surprised him with a cell phone to be able to use in case of an emergency while at school.

Now it was the morning Max was going to have to start going to his new school and it horrified him. Standing in front of the mirror in his bathroom, Max pulled some friendly, awkward smiles, and talked to himself to be ready for his new classmates. It had nothing to do with it being a new school and having to be around kids he didn’t know, hell he did that at camp, it was the anxiety of them asking what his parents did for a living or what they’d think about him being an adopted kid.

David kept assuring Max that it was going to be the best school for him, that it wouldn’t be so scary once he got there; it still didn’t help Max’s stomach from twisting. Taking a deep breath, Max left his bedroom to meet David at the car. David was by the car, wearing a white button up shirt, a brown vest with a pine tree pin over the left breast pocket, and brown dress pants with a forest pattern on the belt.

Instead of driving the Jag to work and taking Max to school, David thought it would be better to take his Subaru Outback. The Jag was new and a little too flashy to bring to school, he also knew some of the student’s liked to play pranks on subs.

Swallowing hard, Max tried to keep his blush down, his heart speeding up in his chest. “Ready to go Max?” David asked, fiddling with his pine tree cufflinks.

“You look like a fucking loser, David!” Max blurted out, stomping over to the other side of the car.

David frowned. “We really need to work on how you speak to people.”

“How about we work on you eating out someone’s ass!” Max quickly got in the car.

With a depressed sigh, David slid into his driver's seat and checked all the mirrors. “Max, please, you have been doing so good….Is it because you are nervous about school?”

Max slouched back in the seat. “I’m not nervous…” His foot tapped the floor of the car. “...Maybe a little….”

“I promise you, Max, you are going to enjoy this school.” David went to place a hand on Max’s shoulder, but remembering all the times he accidentally touched him without his consent and his reactions, he retracted his hand. “You are a really smart kid and resourceful. I am sure you are going to make a lot of friends!”

“You are always so damn optimistic…” Max looked out the window, David pulling the car out the driveway.

“Someone has to be…” David said it low, hoping Max wouldn’t hear him over the radio.

Max did hear him, it caused his stomach to twist again, and he glanced at David. David wasn’t smiling nor was he frowning, he was just watching the road with no expression. “David I…” Max balled his fist in his hoodie pocket, pulling one of his hands out, and grabbing David’s arm lightly. “I’ll try to like school…”

A small smile came to David’s face, he let out a breath of relief. “That’s the spirit, Max!”

The school was about twenty minutes away from David’s house, Max was really glad he wasn’t going to have to take a bus to school. David took Max to the office to get his class schedule, Max took the schedule, glancing over it. “Alright, smell you later David, I’ll head to class now.” He saw how much David was smiling about being able to bring him to his first day of school. “FINE! Just ONE!”

“Yay!” David kneeled and gave Max a big hug, feeling Max shudder, before the boy gave him a quick hug in return and a pat on the back.

“Okay, that is enough now! I don’t need some other kid seeing this and thinking I’m some teacher’s pet or some sh-thing” Max pulled away from David. “You going to be okay?”

David wiped the happy tears from his eyes. “Yessiree!” He gave Max the Camp Campbell Salute. “I have a job at the high school, so I will be here to pick you up when I get out. Be good Max and thank you for watching your language.”

“Don’t get used to it idiot….” Max exited the office to head toward his new classroom.

“...Max?” A male voice came from behind Max, causing the boy to turn around and his eyes going wide with surprise.

“Neil? What the fuck are you doing here?!” Max walked over to him and gave him a high five.

“This is my school! This school is for grades pre-k to eighth grade, then we have the high school next door. What are you doing here? You move to the area with your parents?” Neil asked, really happy to see his camp friend, Max having not had the chance to contact him and Nikki yet.

Max breathed in through his teeth. “Ahh...Yeah...About that…David kind of beat the shit out of my dad and sort of adopted me.”

“No...Fucking...Way….” Neil stared at Max, waiting for him to tell him it was a joke. “Seriously?! David is your dad now?!”

“Not dad….Legal Guardian.” Max let out a sigh. “I get it now, why he said I’d like going to this school, he knew you went here. That sly bastard.”

“Well, regardless, it is really great to know you are in the area! What class do you have first?” Neil looked at Max’s schedule. “Man it sucks that I’m a year older than you, we won’t be in any of the same classes. But at least we will be able to have lunch together...Oh, and before I forget, something happened a couple of days ago and-”

“RAWR!” A girl screamed tackling the boys to the ground. “The gang is together again!” Nikki cried out.

“Nikki?!” Max gasped, hitting the floor, the other kids watching them confused.

“Urg...My dad eloped with Nikki’s mom...She is my step-sister now…” Neil stood up, helping Max to his feet. “She also goes to this school now.”

“Yep! I can’t believe you are here, Max! This is so great! So exciting! Have you seen all the nature around the school!” Nikki took in a deep breath. “Finally away from that city life!”

“Man, it really sucks we aren’t going to be in the same classes because both of you are a year different from me.” Max smiled. “But yeah, we should totally meet up for lunch, and Neil you can probably show me and Nikki around the school later?”

“You bet! Ah, we should all probably get to our first classes, don’t want to be late! See you later guys!” Neil took off running down the hall.

“Psh...You don’t care if we are late do you Max?” Nikki asked, glancing at her friend.

“Actually, I kind of want to try not to mess anything up.” Max itched the back of his head. “I’ll see you and Neil at lunch though.”

“Booo, both of you are such buzz kills outside of camp.” Nikki sighed. “Alright see you at lunch! You better not bail on us! Hahah!” Nikki took off down the other end of the hall.

Max shook his head. “Damn it David…” He was actually feeling a lot better after seeing Neil and Nikki and was able to handle his classes fairly well.

Secretly, from the high school next door, David checked on Max at lunch time. Watching the boy eating with Nikki and Neil, he was really happy when he found out the two of them actually went to that school and hoped it would help Max deal with his issues. David could also relax more now that he knew Max was going to be okay and went to eat his own lunch.

School actually helped Max with the overflow of stress, finally having a set routine instead of everything being crazy was a load off his shoulders. He was able to collect his thoughts and not think about the negative things he’d been fearing, at least that was the case before lunch time. A group of older middle school boys walked over to the table he was sitting at with Neil and Nikki.

“Hey looks like Jew-boy has friends!” The tallest of the boys, with a lot of ingrown hairs along his upper lip, was the first to speak. “I thought this nerd didn’t like human contact.” He dumped his water on Neil’s head.

“Hey! What the fuck?!” Max yelled, about to jump to Neil’s defense, but his friend grabbed his arm.

“No...No, it’s fine, Max…” Neil looked at his food, Nikki growling at the boys.

“Yeah, listen to your friend, sand ni-” Before the boy could finish what he was going to say, both Neil and Nikki punched him.

“I….I can’t believe I just did that!” Neil said, looking at his fist.

“I say we kick all three of their asses!” Nikki jumped onto the table.

Max shrugged. “Well, it was peaceful for a while! Let’s show these fucks what we learned at camp!”

The screams of the other children, caused the adults to run out and saw the three ex-Camp Campbell campers wailing on the three older boys. Nikki was locked onto one of the boy’s arms, he kept trying to swing her off while crying for his mom. Neil was on another’s back, pressing his arm behind his back with his knee. While Max was whispering stuff into the horrified ringleader’s ear.

“Max! I can’t believe you! It was your first day! They said the boy you were with has to be sent to therapy! I don’t even know what to say!” David scolded Max, having to end his work day early, much to the joy of the students he was in charge of. “You can’t act like this!”

“He was going to call me a fucking sand nigger, David!” Max yelled, crossing his arms. “He fucking got what he deserved….”

“I...oh…” David winched. “Alright...maybe they did deserve that then….But Max...Tomorrow, please try to not get into any more fights. I want you to stand up for yourself in less extreme ways.” He let out a sigh. “Would you like to get some ice cream?”

“Yeah...That actually sounds pretty good right now….” Max clutched his arms, digging his fingers into them. “I’ll try better tomorrow.”

 

TBC


	6. Chapter 6

After the first day of school, rumors had spread through the school about Max, Nikki, and Neil, but quieted down after there were no more violent incidents. The two bullies who Neil and Nikki had attacked were scared to go anywhere near their group and their friend had been out of school for two weeks with a doctor’s note about taking care of his mental health before he could return.

David let Max invite Neil and Nikki over to the house for a sleepover the first weekend of good behavior, both were in shock about David being rich, but Nikki loved that the whole place was surrounded by the forest and that David had set up a little camp for the three of them of they wanted to camp instead of staying inside.

Of course the boys were reluctant to sleep outside when they could just stay in the mansion, but Nikki managed to force the two of them to sleep in the tent and camp with her. David even brought them the supplies to make s'mores and some bug repellant.

It was now Saturday, the 22nd of September, the last day of summer, but with everything had had been going on, the actual date had slipped Max’s mind. Neil and Nikki had cancelled their plans to hang out that weekend, saying they had other plans. Even David seemed really distracted the night before after bringing Max home from school.

When Max woke up, it was to the smell of pancakes and maple syrup. “I guess David made breakfast.” Max stretched in his bed, getting up, and pulling on some clean clothes. Opening his bedroom door, he had to stop fast, almost stepping in the plate of pancakes on the floor. “What the fuck?” Max raised an eyebrow, the pancake stack had a smiley face made out of butter and a nose that was a strawberry. “Is David losing his damn mind? Why the hell did he just leave this here?”

Picking the plate up, Max headed toward the stairs, eating as he walked. The closer he got to the stairs, he thought he heard a familiar giggle. Now suspicious, he squinted toward the stairs. “Alright….something's up here….” Just as he was at the top of the stairs and looking down toward the entrance of the mansion, a bunch of balloons fell in front of him, with a banner that read “Happy Birthday, Max!”

Tensing up, his eyes wide, his eyes traveled behind the banner at the group of people by the front door with David. It was everyone from Camp Campbell, David holding a cake with the help of Gwen. “Happy Birthday, Max!” David cheered smiling at Max.

Max’s eyes twitched, trying not to freak out. A surprise birthday party, it was his birthday, he was now eleven and he’d completely forgotten. His parents never celebrated his birthday, they just would buy him something cheap or give him a couple bucks, depending on how little they cared that day.

“Fuck you! David!” Was the response Max was able to react with, throwing the plate of what was left of his pancake breakfast toward the group; it not getting anywhere near them. He then ran back to his room, slamming the door behind him. Sliding down the door, Max put his face into his hands.

“Max? Did...Did I do something wrong? We don’t have to have a party if you don’t want one….I…” David placed a hand to the door. “I just thought it would be nice to have a birthday party….the first one living here with me. I didn’t mean to upset you…”

Max took in a sharp breath. “You are a fucking idiot, David…” Slowly, he got back to his feet. “Do you think I am some little kid that needs some big show off surprise party? Did you want praise that you actually know my birthday and were able to set this whole disaster up without me knowing? Because…” Opening the door, he stared at David, obviously looking very insecure. “If you only did this to try and get good guardian points for yourself, then I don’t need a stupid party.”

David put his hand out to Max. “I did this because I wanted you to have a nice birthday party with your friends from camp. I’m so sorry that I didn’t even think about how it might seem to you.” He frowned. “I take it your parents never did anything like this? I can cancel the party if you want me to.”

Max lightly punched David in the chest, the grabbed his hand for a moment and hit it away. “I want the biggest piece of cake asshole.” Smiling, David lead Max down to where the party was.

It was the best and only birthday party Max had ever had. The campers played video games together, taking turns on the large TV in the living room. Gwen walked up beside David, handing him a drink. “You think he is moody now?” She took a sip of her drink. “Wait till he is closer to being a teenager.”

“Hahah…” David watched the kids horsing around. “He is really starting to open up more. I want what is best for him you know? He is a good kid that had crappy parents and it warped his view of the world.” David played with his glass. “He has a real problem dealing with his emotions, causing him to lash out. I really hope I can help him not be so scared to just be himself.”

Gwen patted David on the back. “You really are taking this guardian thing seriously, that is the best thing for him. Just don’t let him walk all over you and don’t be afraid to punish him. Hugs and kindness don’t always fix the problem, you saw what happened when you tried that with Nurf.”

After opening a couple crappy presents that Max had to pretend to like, he got to the present David got him. It was wrapped in pine tree wrapping paper, with a smiley face sticker holding it together. He could practically see the excitement on David’s face as he started to open the package. Peeking inside to make sure it wasn’t going to explode into some party trick, Max’s heart twisted in his chest.

“What is it Max?” Neil asked, trying to look inside the box.

Pulling the object out of the box, it was a brand new stuffed toy dog. I was a little bigger than Mr. Honey Nuts, with plush white body and black ears. “I thought Mr. Honey Nuts would like a companion. I...um...if you don’t like him, it is….Oh Max….” David watched Max squeeze the stuffed dog close, burying his face into it to hide the tears.

“Ha! Gay!” Nurf laughed. “Max likes stuffed anima-oof!” He grunted, Max’s fist going out and punching him in the stomach.

Gwen looked at the time. “Well! I think that we should call an end to the party, it is getting pretty late, and I think Max may need some alone time as his last present. I’ll get you all back home.” She gave David two thumbs up, ushering the kids out the door, each wishing Max Happy Birthday one last time.

“Max? Are you alright?” David sat down beside the boy, the eleven-year-old’s face still pressed into the new stuffed animal.

“Mmmffiin….” Max mumbled into the toy, tilting his head up from the toy, he glared at David. His cheeks were blushed and eyes red from straining to stop from crying. “Did you have to give him to me in front of the gang you asshole.”

“So do you like him?” David put his elbow on the table, resting his face on his hand.

With a pout, Max just nodded and got up. “Can we watch some movies before bed?”

David’s eyes lit up with excitement, he’d been trying to get Max to sit and watch movies with him for four weeks now. “Yes! I have so many different selections! Oh! This is going to be great!” David quickly jumped up, running to the movie rack.

Max smiled slightly, rolling his eyes. “God you get so excited over the stupidest shit.” He hugged the stuffed dog close, heading for the couch. “I’m calling you Fluffer.” Max said low to his new toy.

Selecting a family movie and putting it into the dvd player, David sat down on the couch. “I really hope you will enjoy this movie! It is absolutely one of my favorites!” He beamed with joy.

Max felt the stomach twist again, instantly regretting this decision, but he sat down on the couch beside David. “If this movie sucks, I’m ditching you and going to my room to play video games.”

“That’s fair, it is your birthday.” David hit play on the movie.

They ended up watching three different movies, before Max fell asleep leaning on David, still holding the stuffed dog. Picking Max up, David carried him back to his bedroom, and placed him into bed. He took Max’s shoes off, but left the rest of his clothes on him. The redhead smiled, watching Max’s sleeping face, and headed for the door.

Before he was out of hearing distance, he heard the sleeping boy say. “Mmm...I love you, David.” David turned quickly to look at Max, seeing the boy was still asleep. Tears streamed down from David’s eyes, his heart felt like it could explode at any moment, he quickly left the room.

“He said he loves me! It was in his sleep but it still counts!” David cheered to himself. “I’m actually doing a good job at this guardian thing!” David headed to his office, a large smile on his face. In his office he had the "Positivity + Max = Success” sign above his desk and on the desk he had one of Max’s decoy dolls. “He’ll open up when he is ready, I am sure of it!” He walked up to the doll and patted it on the head.

When Max woke up in the morning, he had an irrational feeling of dread, he didn’t know why, but he just felt like something was off. He took a moment to think about it, then his face turned red. David had carried him to bed, he’d fallen asleep at some point during one of the movies, and David didn’t just leave him on the couch.

Letting out a loud groan, Max ran his hand over his face. He went down stairs, seeing David beaming at him with scrambled eggs and toast on a plate waiting for him. “Good morning, Max! Did you sleep well?” David’s smile unnerved Max more than it usually did.

“Uh...Yeah…” Max sat down to eat his breakfast. “Look, um, sorry I fell asleep during whatever part we were at in that last movie.”

“It is completely fine! Don’t you worry about it!” David started to eat his own meal.

Max played with his food a little bit. “Why are you acting so weird?”

“Weird? Ah, sorry! I’m just so happy you just had your birthday and we watched movies, and just, family!” David’s smile faded slightly. “I’m really glad we’re getting closer, Max.”

Max flung a piece of egg at David’s face. “Well, you are really creeping me out with that stupid smile.” He took a bite of his food. “I guess I’m getting more use to our situation though. I’m still never calling you dad.”

“I can live with that.” David picked up the piece of egg Max threw at him, eating it.

“By the way, they are going to start giving us Sex Ed tomorrow in my grade.” Max took another bite of his food. “Guess I’m going to finally see some boobs and stuff that don’t belong to an old lady and a bunch of strippers.”

“Wait, what?” David stared at Max, his face turning red.

  
  


TBC


	7. Chapter 7

“Oh my god! David! Do you really think I don’t know what sex is?” Max put a hand to his face in frustration. “I’ve seen porn before, I have the internet. Seeing it in person was a little weird...I really wasn’t prepared for the stuff I saw while at camp. You, on the other hand, I really don’t think you are qualified to teach me about the birds and the bees. I was the only one who had your phone and I know it wasn’t ME, who looked up ‘What do boobs look like?’. You are fucking twenty-four David, how the FUCK, do you not know what boobs look like?”

“I…” David’s face was bright red, being talked to like this from a newly eleven-year-old boy. “I just wasn’t really interested in those things!”

“What boobs? Or just sex stuff in general?” Max questioned.

David coughed into his hand. “This isn’t really appropriate. I also don’t think you should be looking at porn on the internet at your age!”

Max eyed David. “It is boring anyway.” He folded his arms. “I bet you’ve never even watched porn before in your whole life. No wonder Bonquisha dumped your ass, you couldn’t even get the courage to do anything with her could you?”

David’s eyes filled with tears, his lower lip quivering. “I….It just wasn’t the right moment!” David ran to his room crying.

“Fuck….” Max hung his head, he hadn’t meant to hurt or make David cry, he just got really freaked out when David asked him if he understood that he shouldn’t have been exposed to those sorts of things back at camp. Max went to David’s room knocking on the door. “Hey! Idiot! Open up!”

“Go away Max! You’ve made your point!” David sobbed out, burying his face into his pillow.

“Look! I shouldn’t have said what I said..I was really mean! I don’t think I could sleep and have a productive day tomorrow if you don’t open the door!” Max waited for a couple seconds, watching the door slowly open.

David’s eyes were red, tears still falling, he sniffled looking at Max. “I’m just a late bloomer Max….My parents didn’t even let me go to Sex Ed when I was a student, they would call me out sick every time.” He wiped his eyes. “I know the reason it didn’t work out with Bonquisha....I...I just tried so hard to ma..make her..h..happy, and then she dumped me for someone who could actually do what I couldn’t” David started to sob again.

“Get ahold of yourself!” Max yelled, slapping David. “It has been over a month now! I didn’t mean to get you into this mess again!” Max hugged David’s side. “....I’m a fucking asshole…”

Sniffling, David put a hand on Max’s head. “No...I’m sorry that I’m not a very good adult and get so emotional over little things like this…” He smiled awkwardly. “I think Sex Ed will be a good thing for you to learn.”

 

“ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!” Max screamed at the top of his lungs on Monday, his eye twitching at seeing David in the room that the 5th grader boys were going to be learning about Sex Ed.

“Oh! Max!” David waved at him.

With all the other boys looking at David like he didn’t belong, their eyes all turned to Max. Max’s cheeks turned red from embarrassment and he stormed up to David. “You are a fucking adult!” Max hissed low. “You can learn this shit on your own, just go on the internet!”

“I asked the teacher and he said that I could sit in and ask questions. Isn’t it exciting to be learning from an actual teacher?” David smiled.

“Y...You really are this simple…” Max groaned, sitting beside him. “I guess I don’t really have to worry about you being a creepy adult man asking questions in a 5th grade class, I don’t even think anything inappropriate could even come out of you. But, you should really look this stuff up online or something, because this class is probably not going to give us everything you’d need to catch up learning.”

“Alright! Boys, I am sure you are aware we have a guest with us today. Mr.Forester, which some of you have had as a substitute teacher in the past, will be sitting in for the next couple of lessons. Today, I will teaching you all about the changes that will start to happen to your bodies.” The teacher, pulled down a screen and turned on his projector to begin the class.

David sat through the whole class, enthusiastically asking questions. The teacher was a little unnerved about a grown mad not knowing the things he was teaching about basic anatomy, but he still answered each of David’s questions. The other students would snicker over the more stupid questions David asked, causing Max to sink lower into his chair.

Against Max’s protest, David came to every class, a week of having David in a class of 5th grade boys learning about sex and that getting random erections was going to be normal. The teacher even showed the kids how to put a condom on using a banana. Some of the kids were a little bummed that the only naked lady they were shown was a drawn anatomy picture.

The final class the 5th graders had, the teacher stood in front of the class. “You are still children. There is absolutely no reason for you to feel like you need to rush into anything to be cool or because someone you know claims to have done it. When the time comes, you will hopefully be older and it will be with someone you love. But I am very aware that even children younger than you get curious and do things without thinking about the end consequences. These classes are to prepare you to be safe and you will learn more than what I am allowed to teach your age group, once you get into highschool.” He handed out some papers. “I want you all to fill these out and show me how much of the class you actually paid attention to.”

There was a chorus of groans, David being the only one to cheer. Reading over the questions, they had to answer with what they’d learned in the class, like the names of different body parts and their function. Max answered a couple with more vulgar answers, writing ‘Cock’ instead of penis, and calling the prostate the male version of a clitoris.

After everyone handed in their papers, the teacher checked to make sure no one missed a question, pausing on Max’s. “Maxwell Grover?” He looked at Max, raising a brow. “Why are your answers like this?”

“Are they wrong?” Max asked.

“Well...some aren’t, I see that you just used alternate words...But the prostate isn’t exactly like a clitoris.” The teacher sighed. “This is fine, I’m not being paid to deal with this sort of thing, I’ll just send your graded paper to your parents later next week.”

“Oh, uh…” David put his hand up, the other students had already quickly left before the teacher could try and correct any mistakes they had made. “I’m actually Max’s legal guardian.”

Looking at David, then to Max, the man pinched the bridge of his nose. “Well, Max has answered all his questions technically correct. But I would advise you get him to try not to use such language on his school work again.”

David laughed nervously, Max rolling his eyes. “Look, I answered them correctly for the most part right? Just grade it, it isn’t like this is some fancy private school. As long as I’m not being a bother to the other students, why the fuck should it matter what I put on my own paper?”

“What makes you think that the prostate is like a clitoris Max?” The teacher asked, watching both David and Max’s expressions, noticing the innocently naive look on David’s face.

“You want the honest answer? I read it in some porn fanfiction online.” Max gave a shrug. “I also watched some porn where a woman put on a strap-on and was talking about pounding the guys-”

“MAX!” David quickly covered Max’s mouth.

“I see. Well my only suggestion is that Mr.Forester put some parental locks on your computer. I get that kids your age are getting better at using the internet and finding things much easier, but you are still only in the 5th grade and that kind of content isn’t something you should be seeing.” The teacher placed the papers into his briefcase. “I understand what it is like to be a young boy and you are getting closer to puberty. There is nothing wrong with exploring yourself sexually. Just make sure if you do continue to look at things and do things online, that you do not engage in conversations with anyone online that could be trying to talk you into situations that make you uncomfortable.”

“Psh, I’m not a fucking idiot. I know what pedophiles are.” Max headed for the door. “Let’s go home David.”

“Wait, just a dang minute!” David grabbed Max by the arm. “Is this true that someone could try to do something to you online?”

“Yeah, they talk to little kids online, and try to get them to show themselves masturbating on camera. I saw it on TV, they have a whole show called ‘To catch a predator.’. They also try to talk kids to come meet them for sex and worse case the kid is not only raped but killed.” Max glared at the hand tightening and shaking on his arm. “In the show they use decoys to trap them and arrest them. You don’t even know about this? Fuck, you like really lived under a rock being so obsessed with Camp Campbell.”

“Well fuck, why did you even take this class?” The teacher blurted out.

“Because it got me out of being bored and I kind of thought you were going to show more interesting things. Guess I just have to wait till I’m in highschool, I’m not going to trust some strangers online possibly giving me false information.” Max shoved his hands into his pants pockets. “All you adults need to get with the times, not all kids are as stupid anymore.” He pulled one of his hands back out pointing at David. “Also, this idiot wanted to keep coming to the class and I wanted to keep an eye on him.”

David was horrified by everything coming out of Max’s mouth, his eye was twitching, and he let go of Max’s arm. He felt really fatigued now, like he needed to sit down and take a few minutes to put his thoughts together. He was glad Max was very knowledgeable about certain subjects, but he was also very concerned about how much Max already knew about. “Alright. I think we should probably go home now. Thank you for the classes!” David’s voice was a little shaky as he lead Max out of the school.

“It isn’t that big of a deal David, seriously. Don’t stress out about it.” Max followed behind David, the man holding a hand to the side of his own head, mumbling to himself. “If it makes you feel better, I haven’t looked at that stuff while you have been my guardian.”

“That does make me feel a little better.” David let out a sigh. “I know as a guardian I should be monitoring you, but you already….” He unlocked his car. “You already know so much at such a young age. I can’t even get an understanding of exactly how much you must have been exposed to and how fast you have had to grow up.” Placing a hand on the roof of his car, he opened the driver’s side door. “I’m just really sorry that you couldn’t just be allowed to grow up like a normal kid.”

“Geeze David, way to make a kid feel like shit.” Max got into the car.

“Ah! I didn’t mean-” David panicked, getting in as well. “Max, it, it’s nothing wrong with you! It is your parents who should be ashamed of what they allowed you to be exposed to!”

“I’m fucking with you, David.” Max buckled his seatbelt. “I really think you should try to educate yourself more about this stuff. You are a teacher, you are twenty-four-years-old and from what I can tell you have never looked at porn or even masturbated.” Max tried to relax his nerves as he talked to David like this, his stomach twisting again, but he just couldn’t stand what an innocent idiot David was. “I’m a kid and I know all this stuff. You should be much more concerned about your own issues.”

“You’re right.” David started the car. “I have allowed myself to remain too ignorant about this sort of subject. You were also right about Bonquisha….I couldn’t even imagine doing much more than cuddling. That is why she left me, she wanted more, and I was just too naive to understand exactly what she needed.”

“Good! Now what are you going to do?” Max raised a brow at David.

“I am going to go home and watch porn!” David said that a little too enthusiastically, causing himself to blush bright red, and Max started to laugh hysterically.

“Y...You are such a fucking idiot! Hahahah!” Max held his sides, laughing harder. “But, you go do that man, you go and watch all the porn you want. Be a man David.”

“I am a man!” David confirmed to himself, staring at the road. “And I know I shouldn’t have said I was going to watch porn in front of an eleven-year-old boy!”

“Too late now David!” Max smirked. “Try to keep it down though, I don’t need to hear you when I’m doing my homework or trying to get some sleep.”

David blushes so much, even his ears were now red. “Can we change the subject now please?”

“Whatever you say D-man.” Max let out another couple chuckles into his hand.

TBC

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since there is some confusion, this chapter was to force David to want to learn about sex, while Max showed his parents didn't even try to monitor what he was watching. Max in canon obviously watches the news and would at some point have seen "To catch a predator." Bonquisha also had said to David "Your words have touched me in places your hands never could" and he obviously has no idea of some of the sexual things he says or that he showed an anal sex ink blot to Nurf, but Max knew exactly what the ink blot was. As for questions about when is Maxvid going to happen o.o Not for a couple more chapters cause I have a couple things planned to happen that lead up to when 17-year-old Max and David fuck.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, everyone who was confused last chapter, go back and read the end notes I put on there lol Also, for those who may have missed it, the reason I had Max name his stuffed dog Fluffer, is because of the porn profession. Warning as this chapter has Max and David masturbating, but not in the same room. If you are reading this because you like my writing but not actually Maxvid, skip this chapter and wait for the next update. I know I said I was going to do longer chapters, but this felt like a good place to end this chapter.

David awkwardly headed toward his room, his face starting to heat up. “I don’t even know how to even find porn…”

“It is the internet David, just take safe search off in the settings and look up porn.” Max rolled his eyes, then let out a groan. “Fuck right...viruses…”

“Viruses?” David blinked confusedly.

Letting out a sigh, Max put up a hand. “Okay look, I’ll show you how to look up porn and what NOT to do.”

“I...I don’t think I should let an eleven-year-old look up porn for me…” David breathed in nervously.

“It’s fine, David. I’ve seen a lot of shit already and it isn’t like I am going to watch the whole thing with you.” Max walked into David’s bedroom, looking around at all the Camp Campbell things decorating it. “Alright, so first we’re going to want to get you Adblock.”

“But don’t sites need to show us ads to earn money?” David watched Max work on his computer.

“Yeah, well fuck them, you don’t want viruses, trust me.” Max installed an adblocker and a spyware protection program. “If you don’t know how to be careful, you might end up with a brick for a computer or even be hacked and having your identity stolen.” He pulled up the search engine. “Alright, now pay the fuck attention to what I tell you to protect yourself.”

Max moved out of David’s computer chair, letting David sit down. “I’m ready to learn.” David’s expression was completely serious and it made Max want to punch him in the dick.

“Okay, so because I’m sure going head-on is probably going to scar you…” Max typed into the search ‘Softcore porn’. David made a small embarrassed/worried noise, watching the icons for the videos scroll by. “This one is an hour long and a couple different short porns put together, according to the description...Hmm. I don’t know what exactly you are going to be into, you don’t even know…” Max clicked on the video a pop-up still bypassing the blocker.

“I thought you had an Adblock on?” David averted his eyes from Max and the computer.

“Yeah, well some still get through. What you need to know is to NEVER click on them, just hit the X, the Adblock is mainly to stop other ads on the website. No matter what any pop-up says always exit it. I’m going to leave you alone now, uh, if you have anything like vaseline or something, it apparently feels better and stops you from rubbing yourself raw.” Max’s eyes shifted to the side. “Not that I know anything about that, being a prepubescent kid and all.”

“You sure do know a lot of things, Max. I can’t help but feel a little worried for you.” David took a deep breath, looking at the screen. The play button was over a woman with her legs spread open and a man standing to the side of the bed, the button covering up the woman’s vagina.

“Oh, before I leave you to it.” Max stood by the bedroom door. “When you finish watching, you should look up a thing called ‘The Shocker’. I really think you might be into that.” Max turned and headed to his own room, a smirk on his face.

David sat awkwardly for a moment, getting up to find some vaseline, not even sure what he was supposed to do. It wasn’t like the fifth graders were taught how to masturbate and he had no idea how he was supposed to do it. He knew the word and knew the basics as he didn’t live under that big of a rock, but he still had never actually seen things. Bonquisha had been the one who tried to explain it to him, but gave up when he was obviously too innocent.

Max went into his own room, flopping onto the bed, and burying his face into Fluffer. “Fuck…” He breathed in, closing his eyes. Biting his bottom lip, he heard the first moan from the porn and David quickly turn the volume down. Thinking about David watching the video and touching himself, Max felt himself become aroused. “Damnit…” Moving his hand into his pants, running his fingers over his cock.

He imagined David awkwardly watching the porn, him becoming erect and touching himself for the first time. Max’s breathing hitched, rocking his hips into his hand and the bed. Trying to imagine what David’s cock looked like, how his fingers looked as they wrapped around it. Max moaned into Fluffer, his other hand’s fingers tightening into his sheets.

“David…” Max moaned pressing his face harder into the stuffed dog David had given him. His hips jerked against the bed, humping into his own hand, thinking about David on his back on the bed with Max at the foot of the bed watching him touch himself. His cock throbbed in his hand, his toes curling, letting out small whimpers. He wished he could go into David’s room and help him masturbate, to have David touch him in return.

With his shoulders hitching up, letting out a gasp into the stuffed animal, Max orgasmed, and for the first time fluid actually came out. Rolling onto his back, Max looked at his hand, it wasn’t a lot, but it definitely was sticky and clear. He still couldn’t produce sperm, but it was a sign that he was going into puberty.

Getting out of the bed, holding Fluffer, he was curious how David actually was doing. Walking out of his room, Max pressed his ear against David’s bedroom door. He heard David mumbling something in his worried tone, but couldn’t really make out what he was saying, and he could hear the moaning from the video still playing at a lower volume.

Shrugging, Max headed down to the kitchen to get something to eat. Washing his hands, he made himself some food and sat down on the couch to watch some TV. He wanted to distract himself from thinking about David and what he was doing upstairs. Max pulled Fluffer into a hug, watching a violent movie with the hopes it would distract him.

Twenty minutes into the movie, he heard noises from upstairs that sounded like David had dropped something. He heard David leave his room and heard another door shut quickly. Sinking into the couch, Max’s fingers pressed into the stuffed dog.

David paced in the upstairs bathroom, looking at his vaseline and cum covered hands, his face was bright red, and his heart was racing. He’d made a mess of his clothes with both substances, having not been prepared for what was going to happen to his body once he figured out how he was supposed to masturbate from the video. Removing his clothes and tossing them into the hamper, David jumped into the shower to clean himself up.

The redhead’s cheeks almost matched the color of his hair, he used soap to get the vaseline off his hands and glanced down at his own cock. “Nnnn….” He let out a worried noise, reaching down to clean it. His knees buckled and he became hard again, his breathing hitching. “Oh darn…” David gasped, rubbing his soapy hand over himself.

Warm water ran over David’s body, his forehead leaning against the shower wall. David was worried about how much he actually liked the feeling he got from touching himself, that he was turning into some sort of pervert, but it felt so good. David pressed his tongue to the back of his teeth, moving his hand faster, squeezing his cock a little tighter.

Max heard a loud crash from upstairs and leaped up from the couch, running up to the third-floor bathroom. “DAVID?!” He yelled, not even thinking as he opened the bathroom door. His eye twitched, seeing David naked on his back half out of the tub, with an erection. “....Did you slip while masturbating in the shower?….”

David’s hands quickly moved to cover his erection. “Max! I….” He looked away embarrassed and in slight pain. “...Yes…”

“You fucking idiot….Next time if you are going to do that get one of those fucking non-slip mats, sit in the fucking tub, or make sure you are holding onto something! Morron! You could have killed yourself! Or got really hurt!” Max turned and stormed out of the bathroom, slamming the door behind him. His face slowly became really hot and he had to calm himself down, glaring down at his erection. “Well, now we know what the fuck it looks like, but you calm down…”

Max could hear David trying to collect himself in the bathroom and balled his fist. The eleven-year-old boy then headed back to finish the movie he was watching, he was pissed at how David could have hurt himself and horny. He flopped onto the couch and put Fluffer over his lap to wait for his erection to go down.

A couple minutes went by, Max’s erection finally going down, and David walked awkwardly into the living room. “Uh...Max...Umm…” David’s eyes darted around, his face still red. “I’m sorry you had to see me like that. I should have made sure I was safe. I’m sorry that I scared you.”

Max scrunched his face up. “I wasn’t scared. You are just a fucking idiot.” He glanced over at him. “Try to be careful next time. You have to stick around as my guardian remember?”

David itched the back of his head, still feeling super awkward. “I see you already made yourself something to eat, so I will just...go ahead and get myself something.”

“Dammit, David! We are both guys! Yes, I saw your erection! It isn’t the end of the damn world!” Max threw his hands up into the air. “We both have dicks, I’ve seen porn before, we’ve established this! Seeing your dick isn’t going to traumatize me.” Max flipped him off. “Just fucking get your food and come sit down and watch a movie with me.”

David’s eyes lit up, hearing Max say he wanted to watch a movie with him. “Okay! You are so right! I shouldn’t feel awkward about my body or what happened! I will go and get some food, then be right back in a jiffy!” The man balled his fist with determination and marched into the kitchen.

“....I fell in love with a manchild…” Max’s eye was twitching, putting a hand to his face.

  
  


TBC


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More Dadvid content lol I also cried while writing the end because of imagining what was happening...I am a sap ok....

“David.” Max was standing in the doorway of David’s office, glancing at the knitted decoy doll on David’s desk. “Give me your credit card. Neil’s dad is going to take me, Neil, and Nikki to the mall and I need some money.”

“Oh? The mall sure sounds nice! Maybe I can go with you gu-” David stopped talking, looking at Max’s raised hand.

“No. Just give me your card and stay home doing whatever the hell you were planning to do tonight.” Max made a grabby hand motion. “Come on, I don’t have all damn day. They are going to be here soon.”

Lower lip quivering, David got up from his office chair and took his debit card from his wallet. “Well, I hope you guys have fun at the mall…” He handed the card to Max.

“Oh stop acting like a child David, go watch some more porn or something. You won’t have to worry about keeping quiet without me here.” Max watched the blush creep up David’s face. “I’ll be back, whenever.” Max waved a dismissive hand, walking to the front door.

A couple hours later, Max came back home with a large brown, unlabeled box with a shopping bag on top. David was in the kitchen getting dinner ready, having called to check on Max and find out if he’d eaten yet. Quickly, the eleven-year-old went to his room with the box. He opened his closet door, where he had the other part of the sparrow staff on the upper shelf of the closet, and put the box into the back.

Placing a hand on the box, Max let out a groan. “I’m such an idiot….” He pulled the paper shopping bag off the box, placing it on a chair in his bedroom. “Better give David his card back.”

“Oh! You’re already home!” David smiled, wearing an apron and oven mitts, and placing freshly made lasagna on the table. “Did you have fun at the mall?”

Max scrunched his nose up. “You are like some kind of housewife.” he walked over to him and held the card out. “Yeah, it was pretty fun, we caught a new horror movie that just came out a couple weeks ago about a killer clown. If I ever see Scotty again, I might have to hit him with a bat a couple times to make sure he isn’t a monster.”

“Max! That isn’t nice! Scotty is..Scotty is a very nice boy who happens to like props.” David took his mitts off, taking the card from Max. “Did you buy what you needed?”

Max shrugged. “I got what I could get my hands on at the shitty little mall, which by the way is so much smaller than I was expecting for the area.” He grabbed himself a plate and put some food on it, sitting at the table. “I grabbed some Halloween decorations too.”

David sat across from Max, eyes lighting up. “Halloween decorations sound fun!” A smile formed on his face. “I would love to set up the decorations with you Max, maybe we can get costumes and go trick or treating….Oh, unless you don’t want to…” David started to fill his plate with food.

“....Fine, we’ll go to a store and get more decorations and costumes. I’m still a kid, of course, I want to go trick or treating! It is free candy and if they don’t give you the good stuff you egg or throw toilet paper at their house.” Max put a fork full of lasagna into his mouth. “Mmm~ Have to say you are really good at making food, David.”

“Why thank you, Max! You have no idea how happy it makes me that you enjoy it!” David felt full of warmth, seeing Max act like he wasn’t really enjoying the food as much now. “I can’t say the scary costumes and pranks are something I really approve of, but anytime that I can spend with you as your guardian makes me happy.”

Max’s fork scraped the plate, making a screeching sound. “Yep…” His toes pressed down hard into the soles of his shoes. “It isn’t like I want to spend time with you or anything, I just want the fucking candy. Don’t think it is some bonding moment!”

“Sure thing, Max.” David let out a happy laugh, starting to eat his own food.

“I mean it! You aren’t breaking me!” Max shoved more food into his mouth.

Over the next couple days, Max stayed in his room a lot, even locking his door and refusing to let David in. It hurt David that Max seemed to be withdrawing from him, but he was still doing better at school, and that made David happy. They did spend some time together, decorating the cabin and forest that was on David’s property as a giant Halloween horror event.

Even though a lot of the pranks and scares were at David’s expense, causing him to have to go back to his office after only an hour with the other children. But, the most joy out of the whole ordeal was on the actual Halloween night, he and Max were dressed as a tree and a woodcutter, going house to house. The parents who answered the door complemented their costumes and how cute it was they matched, people who didn’t have kids just looked at them weird, and gave them candy.

There were a couple houses who didn’t have candy and were trying to give out other items instead, which caused David to have to keep Max from vandalizing the houses. By the end of the night, they had four pillowcases filled with candy from the multiple houses they’d visited in different neighborhoods. Even if there had been many costumes and rude people that made David uncomfortable, just being with Max made the whole night worth it.

Max later placed what he’d bought at the mall under David’s bed, hearing the man scream. “MAX!” The glowing yellow eyes of the clown prop staring out at the now stressed man. Max was laughing in his room, hearing David exit his room to put the clown prop somewhere other than his room.

David and Max spent time together, cleaning up the Halloween decorations and haunted house stuff, then Max went back to staying in his room. Being Max’s guardian, he was worried if Max was keeping something from him, could Max be doing drugs? Was he doing something that he thought he couldn’t trust him with? The worry and feeling of them drifting apart filled David.

Every time that David would try to ask Max what he was up to and if he needed to talk about anything, he was told to fuck off and leave him alone. David even went to Neil and Nikki to see if Max had talked to them about any issues he was having, but neither of them had any answers for him.

Thanksgiving came around, Max, Nikki, Neil, their parents, and Gwen were at the dinner table, and David cut the turkey. It was a very warm and happy meal, everyone felt like a family member, and David was so moved to tears at having people to spend time with on the holiday. Max was a little awkward, as it was his first ever real Thanksgiving that didn’t involve ordering a pizza and eating it alone; it was nice and he was truly having a good time.

Once the dinner was over and everyone went home, David expected Max to go back up to his room again, but the boy was at the movie rack. “Let’s watch one of these stupid fucking movies you have.” The eleven-year-old pulled a movie out and put it into the DVD player.

“Sure!” David felt his heart flutter with joy, happy that Max wasn’t going to go back to ignoring him.

It was a really good night and when it was time for bed, David had the first good night's sleep in weeks. He felt good knowing that it wasn’t anything he’d done that was causing Max to drift away, he still wished Max would stop cursing so much.

Soon it was winter, the first snowfall started, and David’s whole property was covered in snow in only a couple days. Max, Neil, and Nikki were quick to hang out together making snowmen and snow forts on the land. They even had a snowball fight, where they all threw snowballs at David every time they saw him. While David loved summer, he did enjoy winter and drinking hot chocolate.

The day before Christmas, David was surprised that Max wanted to spend the holiday with just him and not his friends. There was no measurement to how much happiness filled David that Max wanted to spend Christmas alone with him and Max kept insisting that he needed to stop crying so easily.

David had decorated a beautiful tree with Max, he also placed a couple presents for Max under the tree, and some that said: “From Santa”. Max let David talk about Santa like the man was real, he liked seeing how excited David was when talking about it and how Santa would definitely have Max on the nice list.

On Christmas morning, David knocked quickly and repeatedly on Max’s bedroom door. “Max! Max! Santa has come and he left some presents under the tree for you!” David yelled at the door excitedly.

“Urg…” Max was exhausted, bags under his eyes, and he’d obviously not slept the whole night. Opening the door, he followed after the happy sprinting David. “One day I am going to push you down those stairs…”

“That isn’t very nice! You don’t want to be on Santa’s naughty list next year do you?” David sat down in front of the tree excitedly, holding out presents to Max.

The presents David got Max were socks, a new video game that Max showed interest in, and a giant teddy bear that David had to get out of another room. For the rest of the present opening, Max was sitting on the stuffed bear. “Santa” had given Max a train set with a bunch of add-ons with it.

“Looks like Santa thought you might be interested in having a little hobby that we can put together.” David smiled.

Max stared at the train set and accessories. “Yeah, this looks pretty fun actually.” He placed the train set down, getting up and going back to his bedroom. David stayed beside the tree, looking over the train set instructions, it was going to be a fun project to do with Max. “Alright, so...Don’t make a big fucking deal about this okay?” Max returned holding a box in his arms, dropping it in front of David. “If you don’t like it, you don’t have to try and spare my feelings.”

“You got me something?! Oh boy!” David excitedly opened the box, his eyes going wide, filling with tears that just streamed down his face. “Oh….Oh Max...This…” He reached in, pulling out a knitted green sweater, a heart with a tree in the middle of it in the middle of the sweater. Inside the box was also a knitted matching hat and mittens. “Max...Is this what you have been doing in your room this whole time?”

Max looked away from the sobbing with joy man, his cheeks pink. “Yeah, it took longer than I expected...I finished the hat this morning before you woke up….”

“It is wonderful, Max….Thank you.” David stood up and gave Max a tight hug. “This is the best Christmas I’ve ever had!”

“...Me too…” Max mumbled, hugging David back. “Why don’t we spend the rest of the day watching crappy Christmas specials….”

  
  


TBC

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Even though I make an IT ref in this, in fic it is a generic evil clown movie since this chapter is based in 2012.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is set in 2016 btw lol If SJW teens and Max responding to them bothers you(We've seen Max seems to watch CNN and in show has brought up stuff like 9/11 and the 99 percent, the scene is also something that is a jab at antis and what schools are actually trying to do irl), skip the lunch scene, just go right to David taking Max home.

The first summer of not being able to go to work at Camp Campbell was hard for David, he mostly stayed in his room or his office crying. It really pissed Max off when David was depressed and against what he really wanted to do, which was sit around and play video games or go off with his friends, he reluctantly asked David to go camping together in the woods behind David’s house.

Because Max knew about his feelings for David, he didn’t dare go camping with only David. Neil and Nikki also came camping with the two of them, Max having to blackmail Neil. David was so happy to spend three months in the woods with the three of them.

Neil and Max trying to sneak away back to the mansion a couple times, but David would stop them; at least David was happy and that was all Max actually cared about. He did regret it later when David wanted to do it the next four summers too.

“Urg! Stop being such a fucking baby!” Max pulled his bag over his shoulder, squinting at David.

David sniffled, wiping the tears from his eyes. “I am just so happy! You are now a high school student!”

Max rolled his eyes. “I’m going to school now.” He rolled his shoulders back. “Remember our deal, no one is to know you are my guardian. So don’t try to eat lunch with us and if you are my sub, you will act like I am a normal student.”

“I remember…” David pouted slightly.

“Don’t do that…” Max groaned and looked around, then gave David a hug when he knew no one else could see them. Pulling back quickly, the fourteen-year-old flipped David off. “Now, go to fucking work already!”

David had a large smile on his face, ignoring the middle finger Max pointed at him. “I will see you after school! Tell me all about your first day!” He then happily walked to the school.

Max shivered, breathing out. “Time to get to class and not think about fucking him…” He shifted some, having half an erection. “Stupid teenage hormones….”

Even though the high school was next door to his last school, many of the kids he went to elementary and middle school with went to different high schools; not that he actually tried to make friends with anyone. There were so many new teenagers and the atmosphere was much different than he’d expected it to be. Neil was still a grade above him and Nikki a grade below, so it was weird to not be in the same school as Nikki after four years.

Last year, when Max and Nikki were in middle school together and Neil was in high school, the two of them jumped the fence at lunch to join him. This year Max figured Nikki would be doing it again, they’d been scolded by teachers from both schools, but David stuck up for them.

Max was in a class full of strangers, he was already getting a couple weird looks from his classmates. A couple of the girls were giggling and glancing over at him, that made him a little uncomfortable. He wasn’t gay, he did like looking at porn of women too, he just didn’t want to deal with teenage girl drama.

“Hi! I’m Christie! What is your name? Where are you from?” A brown haired girl beside him asked, a large smile on her face.

“...My name is Max and what do you mean where am I from?” Max eyed the girl.

“Oh! I...I didn’t mean to offend you.” Christie scooted back in her seat. “Are you from around here is what I mean...Not where your people are from... I mean-”

“You should probably stop talking before you say something else stupid.” Max put his hand on his face.

“Rude…” The girl turned back in her seat, glaring at Max now.

“Whatever.” Max shrugged, turning his attention back to the front of the class when the teacher came in.

When it was lunch time, Neil was quick to get to Max first. “Max, I think we should go around the other side of the school to get to the lunchroom.” Neil nervously glanced back to the way they’d normally have to go.

Max raised a brow at Neil. “Why? It is quicker to go that way isn’t it?” He started to head down the hall, Neil grabbing his arm.

“Look, I know how you can get sometimes and..I just don’t think it is a good idea to go near the library right now.” Neil tried to pull Max with him.

“Now I have to see what you are trying to make me not see.” Max pulled his arm away from Neil, heading toward the library where a group of students had signs. “Oh…”

“Join us fellow students! Sign the petition to get problematic material out of our school!” A girl yelled, holding up a sign that said ‘Protect our students from problematic novels!’ “We have a list of novels and the many reasons why they shouldn’t be allowed on school property! These books contain content that is immoral and triggering!”

“Max please…” Neil groaned. “I know they are really fucking annoying, but this is high school, if we cause a scene it could end up on our permanent record!”

Max walked over and grabbed one of the lists and read the different books with their reasons they were wrong beside them. “You think all Shakespeare work needs to be removed from school?” He stared at the group.

“All works of William Shakespeare are problematic! There is incest, pedophilia, suicide, and so many other horrible things! He is also a huge misogynist for not letting women in his plays!” Another girl yelled.

“You all are a bunch of fucking morons….” Max balled the piece of paper up and threw it at one of the guys’ heads. “The books you have listed are all works of fiction or have historical value, but you just want to be so self-righteous that you get on your pedestal and start shouting shit and try to get others to join you in your selfish crusades of what you think is justice.”

“How dare you!” The first girl gasped at Max. “Do you think that these books that glorify-”

“They don’t fucking glorify shit, get your damn heads out of your asses. Actually, listen to your teachers and read the damn books, don’t just follow what you hear others say so blindly, or throw around baseless lies.” Max scrunched his face up. “This is a school, not the internet and you are here to fucking learn, which you obviously all suck at. Maybe you should loosen your hair tie.”

“You misogynistic pig!” The second girl moved toward him. “How dare you talk to a girl like that?! You are supportive of these books, are you? So you support the victimization of the characters in these books?!”

“See? This is the problem, someone doesn’t agree with what you have to say and you instantly call me misogynistic and suggest that I support what you consider to be problematic.” Max started to walk away. “Come on Neil, let’s get our lunch.”

“I bet you are going to grow up to be some type of fucking sicko!” The first girl yelled behind them.

Max turned around, made a V with his fingers and flicked his tongue between it. “I’m already a sicko~”

The girls looked horrified, Neil having to pull Max with him. “They are probably going to report you for sexual harassment now…” Neil groaned.

“Let them.” Max shoved his hands into his pockets.

“I can’t believe I have to take you home from school at lunchtime on your first day AGAIN!” David sighed, hands tightening on the steering wheel. “Max, I thought we went over what was and wasn’t appropriate!”

“I had to prove them right if they are going to accuse me of something.” Max shrugged, leaning back in the seat.

“You’ve been suspended for a week!” David groaned. “You shouldn’t do such things Max, stooping down to such a low level just to get a rise out of someone is wrong.” He glanced at the teen. “Neil said you intentionally confronted them, that you could have just walked away, but that you wanted to get a rise out of them.”

“Well, Neil has a big mouth.” Max pressed his heels into the floor of the car.

“Max, please don’t antagonize those types of students.” David pulled up to the driveway. “I know they have some strange opinions, but it is their right to voice them if they wish.”

“So you think them trying to get Shakespeare out of schools is a good thing? That they are judging other students based on the type of books they read? Having an opinion is great and all, but trying to force their ideas on others is fucking bullshit.” Max got out of the car when it stopped. “My parents may be utter shit, but they didn’t come to this country for this type of shit. Yelling about equal rights, then turning around and crying when they are treated equally.” 

“I never said that Max. I will be talking to the school board about how these sorts of things can be a distraction on school property.” David exited the car to walk with Max to the house. “I think we need to get you to spend less time on the internet and stop watching the news….”

Max groaned. “Look, I know I shouldn’t have made the hand jester. I’ll try not to antagonize them again.”

“Thank you, Max.” David smiled.

On Saturday, Max yawned, walking down to get lunch since he’d slept all day. Pausing, his head whipped around at David who was fixing a tie and dressed nicely. “What are you doing?” Max turned away from the kitchen to head to David.

“Oh! Um…” David cleared his throat, blushing. “I have a date tonight, I didn’t want to tell you because if it didn’t work out-”

“A date?” Max felt his heart twist and the stomach pains again. “You haven’t been on a date since Bonquisha. What the fuck David?”

“Well, I met someone online and she seems really nice!” David shifted nervously. “I didn’t want to try and date till you were more comfortable here.”

“Who says I am comfortable?” Max mumbled, trying to calm down the panic rising inside him.

David quickly put a hand to his mouth. “Oh no! Are you not comfortable for me to be dating yet? I should have told you about it, I am so sorry Max! I know this would be a big change if things worked out…” He took his phone out. “I’ll cancel the date if-”

“No…” Max took in a deep breath. “Go on the date David, you deserve to be with someone. You aren’t getting any younger, you are twenty-eight and still a virgin, just….” Max pressed his toes hard into the soles of his shoes. “Don’t let her know you are rich till after you know she is a good person...there are a lot of bad people out there.”

David slowly put his phone away. “You are still the top person in my life Max, even if this does work out, if there is ever an issue, I will always be on your side.”

Max wanted to cry, but forced a sarcastic smile on his face. “Get out of here you idiot and enjoy your date!” He stood in the doorway, watching the car drive away. “You...idiot…” He was talking about himself, moving his hands to his face, he fell to his knees crying into his hands.

Once calming down enough, Max stood up, shutting the front door. The fourteen-year-old wasn’t hungry anymore, he felt sick. Stumbling up the stairs, feeling numb, he opened the door to David’s bedroom. Of course, David was going to want to start dating, he couldn’t expect him to want to be single, and Max didn’t have the courage to actually confess to him.

“He’d never want a kid as a lover….” Max laid face first in David’s bed, smelling one of David’s pillows. “Let alone a guy…” Pulling one of David’s pillows close, Max curled up in the bed. “I know this...so why does it have to fucking hurt so much…”

Max pressed his face into the pillow, moving a hand down into his pants, his fingers wrapping around his cock. Breathing speeding up, he rocked his hips into his hand and squeezed his other arm around the pillow. His shoulders shook, tears coming from his eyes. Even if things didn’t work out with the girl, David would eventually find someone else. That thought caused Max to pull his hand out of his pants and run to the bathroom, vomiting into the toilet.

“Fuck!” Max punched the floor. “FUCK! FUCK! FUCK!” He screamed at the toilet, shaking his head violently. “Just stop! I don’t want to be in love with that idiot! I don’t want to feel like this!” He leaned back against the tub, glancing up at the ceiling. “I wish I could go back to when I hated him….I want to go back to before I realized he isn’t bad like my parents…” Pulling his legs to his chest, he put his face to his knees. “...No...I don’t….”

 

TBC


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the last really rushed like chapter. Max is now 15, which is 2 years to write about before he and David become sexual together in any way. Max is a high school student and I wanted to get passed the whole 11 to 14-year-old years as it would have made this fic a whole lot longer than I originally intended o.o Things ARE going to slow down to a normal pace now that Max is older and things that can happen in high school.

Max flipped through the TV channels, glaring occasionally at the front door, his hand bruised from when he punched the floor. David had been going out on dates with the woman he’d met online for a week and David had gone on a date with her the night before, but he hadn’t returned yet. Many things were going through the almost fifteen-year-old’s mind. Had she grown annoyed by David and killed him? Could they have moved quickly into the relationship and had sex? What if David had been in a serious accident on his way home?

The door suddenly opened, with David trying to sneak back inside the house, the TV remote flying past his head. “Oh! Max...Good morning!” David smiled at the glaring teen.

“Where the fuck have you been David?!” Max jumped up from the couch, holding Fluffer in one hand, and pointing accusingly at David.

“We ended up going to her house after our date and got so caught up talking before we knew it the sun had come up! I’m so sorry I didn’t call Max…” David frowned a little. “I really want to ask you something though…”

Max’s eye twitched. “What do you want to ask me?” Inside Max’s head, red alerts were ringing ‘Please don’t fucking ask me for permission to marry her, please fucking god don’t ask that!’

“Well, you know how your birthday is on Thursday?” David played with his tie a little.

“Yeah?” Max squinted questioningly.

David coughed into his hand. “I think that it might be time for you to meet Trina.” He looked really nervous. “Why don’t the three of us go to dinner together on your birthday and let the two of you meet!”

Max was screaming loudly in his head, his wide eyes staring at David. “You…” He swallowed. “Sure...I’ll meet her. I mean, if she is going to be part of our lives I kind of have to huh? Hahah..” It was really hard for him not to be a child and tell David he didn’t want her ruining his birthday.

“Great! Woo! I was so worried you weren’t going to be on board!” David walked over to Max, hugging him, feeling the boy tense up. “Max?”

“I’m going to call Nikki and Neil to see if they want to hang out. I might end up staying overnight and go to school with them.” Max moved away from David.

“You aren’t okay with this are you…?” David’s shoulders slouched. “Max you can be honest with me…”

Max groaned. “Look! It doesn’t matter! I would have to meet her sometime anyway! If she makes you happy, I am sure...I’ll….” He balled his fist. “I’m sure she is a nice woman and I’ll like her…Or I will try to.”

Thursday came, Max glaring at himself in the mirror, having brushed his hair nicer and wearing nicer clothes. “I look like a fucking tool…” Max groaned, walking down to where David was waiting. “There, I changed, you happy now?!”

“It is your first time meeting and it is a nice restaurant….” David beamed at Max. “You look very handsome Max!”

Max blushed, storming passed David. “Let’s get this shit show over with before I want to punch you, David.”  He quickly spun around, pointing a finger at David. “Don’t you fucking dare give me some embarrassing birthday present in public! I will fucking murder you!”

At the restaurant, Max crossed his arms, looking really annoyed. A couple other people at the restaurant were giving him and David weird looks, because of how excited David looked while staring at the entrance. A beautiful woman with shoulder-length brown hair walked in, wearing a blue dress and waved in their direction.

Max stared at her, then robotically turned his head to David who was smiling and waving her over. When she sat down, she smiled at Max. “You must be Max, David has told me all about you!” She put her hand out to shake Max’s hand.

“Yeah, he tells a lot of people about me…” Max shook her hand reluctantly.

For the most part, the dinner actually didn’t go too badly, she really liked to talk and lean on David. She didn’t really seem to want to pay Max any attention, only acknowledging him being there when David would bring his name up. When David got up to go talk to the manager, Trina smiled at Max and excused herself saying she needed to go to the bathroom.

Max looked to where David was, seeing him be lead into the kitchen by the manager. The birthday boy got up, walking toward the bathrooms, seeing Trina on her cellphone. “Hey, you know that guy I was telling you about? Yeah, the one that is obsessed with camping and talking about trees.” She played with a piece of her hair. “He finally introduced me to his little Indian kid, no not the Native American kind of Indian. Yes, I still hate kids, but we did that background check and David Forester has a lot of money...We could just send the kid to boarding school or something. I’ll get him to marry me and then divorce him and take him for everything he has.”

Max was filled with so much rage that he became really calm, he walked up behind Trina. “Oh really?” Trina jumped, hanging her phone up, her eyes wide. “I warned David about bitches like you.” Max shrugged. “I should have expected the idiot wouldn’t pick up on someone who is two-faced. I knew something was up the second you walked in, there is no way someone who looks like you would be into David.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” Trina clutched her phone, glaring at Max.

“I’ve been with David since I was nine. I know all of his annoying traits and how gullible he is.” Max walked closer toward her. “I know he thinks he is a hopeless romantic, but is really just desperate for affection of any kind.” Max’s expression turned dark. “You didn’t seem really interested in anything he was talking about at the table and you are way out of his league in the looks department.”

“Look, I won’t send you to boarding school if you stay quiet.” Trina looked like a lightbulb went off in her head. “You know, as a young man...I am sure you have some urges…” She put a finger to Max’s chest. “I could show you a couple things when he isn’t around….You are cute…”

“Wow!” Max grabbed her hand hard. “You really have a screw loose in that fucking skull don’t you?” He watched her flinch. “Let me spell this out for you. If you don’t leave right the fuck now, I will fucking kill you or make you wish I killed you. I can make your life a living hell….” He watched the fear come into her eyes. “I will deal with David, but you will stay the fuck away from him, you can break up with him tomorrow.”

“I...I am not afraid of some child! I will tell David you are threatening me!” Trina pulled her hand back.

“Sure you could do that.” Max shrugged. “Hell David would know it’s true.” He crossed his arms. “But he’d also know I had a reason for it. David is a great guy and really important to me….I am not going to let some gold digger break his fragile heart. I’ve seen David after a breakup and I hate that he is going to have to feel that way again because of someone like  _ you _ . It is actually your loss that you can’t see him for the kind person he is and just want to use him.”

Trina laughed, glaring at Max. “I could make him turn on you so fast little boy, he is a man and I can give him much more than you could. You are just the little child he took pity-” She suddenly froze, paling.

“Max….” David’s voice caused Max to stiffen, Trina slowly backing toward the exit.

“Fuck….” Max turned to see David holding a cake with ‘Happy Birthday, Max! 15!’ on it, tears going down David’s face. “David...I…”

“I’m sorry Trina, but I think we need to break up. I don’t think you are a very nice person and I don’t like what you just said to Max.” David kept a hold of the cake, his eyes getting puffy from the tears. “You obviously aren’t the woman I thought you were.”

“Your money isn’t even worth it.” Trina put her hands on her hips. “I don’t have the energy to be around an idiot like you and this little piece of shit kid who thinks he can threaten and scare me.”

“If you don’t leave right now, they won’t just be threats, you whore!” Max yelled, causing a little bit of a scene and people started to notice them.

“Max! Language!” David was shaking a little. “Let’s go back to the table and...and…” He tried to compose himself. “Eat this birthday cake, just the two of us Max…”

“Sure…” Max glared at Trina as she quickly left, walking back to the table with David. “How much did you hear…”

David placed the cake on the table, giving Max a tight hug. “I heard enough Max….Thank you for your kind words. I’m just sorry you had to stick up for me that way...I’m such a fool to not have seen through her…”

“Well, you did only know her for a week….” Max hugged David back. “I’m sorry she was a bitch….”

A couple waiters came over, singing happy birthday to Max. In a normal situation, Max would have told David off about embarrassing him in public, but he was going to let it slide for now. They ate a couple pieces of cake, getting the rest of it boxed up to take home with them.

Even though David was keeping it together more than what happened with Bonquisha, Max knew the man was in pain. “I’m going to sleep in your bed tonight.” Max went to his own room to get Fluffer and a pillow, changing into his PJs, before heading into David’s room.

“Why do you want to sleep in here tonight?” David was only in a pair of his boxers, getting changed into his own PJs.

Max repressed the noise he wanted to make. “I don’t think you should be alone right now….” He climbed into the bed, putting a pillow between where the two of them would be.

David smiled sadly, finishing changing, and turning off the light. “You have grown into a good kid Max...I remember when you use to try and kill me and would never let me give you a hug.” The redhead moved into the bed beside Max, the pillow keeping them slightly separated. David turned on his side, looking Max in the face. “I’m really glad to have you here, Max.”

Max pulled Fluffer close to his chest, a little embarrassed that at fifteen he was still attached to stuffed animals. “You got me away from those assholes and gave me a real home….” Max tried to hide his blush. “I still find you annoying at times, but you deserve to be happy and not hurt by selfish bitches like that whore.”

David reached out, petting Max lightly on the head. “I guess dating just doesn’t work out for me huh?”

“You aren’t terrible….” Max closed his eyes, enjoying David’s touch, not that he’d admit it out loud. “You just need to find the right person....Maybe try not to talk so much about camp and your love of wood...That can kind of annoy the type of women you seem to be into.”

“.....Yeah….” David’s hand rested on Max’s head. “I think I am going to be fine because I have you here, Max…”

“You know. I could skip school tomorrow and we can-” Max started, his eyes open again to look at David in the darkness.

“You’ve missed enough school.” David removed his hand. “I want you to have a good education. I would hate to be a cause of you missing more school.”

Max groaned, rolling onto his back. “Teenagers suck ass and the teachers care more about writing up surprise test.”

“Max, you were suspended your first week of high school...You’ve only been to school a week since school started…” David let out a small laugh. “There hasn’t been a chance for you to like school yet, I’d really like for you to try a little harder.”

“Urg! Fine! I’ll try, but I doubt I’ll ever like high school…” Max let out a yawn.

David closed his eyes. “Mmm...You are very bright, I believe in you.”

“David?” Max turned back onto his side.

“Mmm?” David started to drift to sleep.

Max reached over and took David’s hand with his. “Can we sleep like this?”

David smiled, squeezing Max’s hand. “Sure thing bud….”

  
  


TBC


	12. Chapter 12

Max stared at David’s sleeping face when he woke up, his hand still holding the older man’s. ‘He even looks like an idiot when he sleeps…’ Max’s eyes went to David’s lips and he bit his own. ‘Damnit, get a hold of yourself...You aren’t some little girl having a crush on a mentor figure….’ He cursed himself, feeling his morning erection against the pillow that separated him and David. Thinking about morning erections, his eyes traveled down to the sheet that was covering their lower halves.

David started to stir, his hand squeezing Max’s, then his eyes opened. “Good morning!” He said in a cheerful voice. “Did you sleep well, Max?”

Max’s eyes quickly darted back up to look David in the face. “Wha-Yeah...I slept fine...How are you doing?” He was still a little worried because of how David was after Bonquisha.

“To be honest?” David sat up, pulling his legs up so that Max wouldn’t see his erection, his cheeks red. “I’m a little sad...Not like what happened with Bon Bon...But…” He sighed. “I should have noticed the signs that she wasn’t really interested….I am upset with myself more and how she talked to you. I didn’t catch the whole conversation, though I am sure she said not very nice things….”

“Yeah, she offered to fuck me if I didn’t tell her I overheard her gold digging ass.” Max shifted in the bed, thinking about something to get his erection to go away.

“She what?!” David’s eyes went wide, staring in horror at Max. “You are fifteen! That was highly inappropriate!” He put a hand on his face. “I can’t believe I ruined your birthday by inviting her…”

Max sat up, rubbing his own hand absentmindedly. “It wasn’t like a super bad birthday. I’ve had worse.” He reached over and put his hand on David’s shoulder. “I know you put in a lot of trouble to get the restaurant and cake just right….It meant a lot to me.”

David made a noise of pure joy, grabbing Max and giving him a tight hug, his face going into Max’s neck. “I’m so glad!” Max’s body had a jolt shoot through it, quickly pushing David away.

“Uhh, I’m going to go take a shower and get ready for school…” Max grabbed Fluffer, walking briskly out the bedroom door to the bathroom on the second floor, the one he’d claimed for himself. He placed Fluffer on the laundry basket, removing his pjs. Turning on the shower, he flinched as the cold water hit him. Max had decided a cold shower was a better idea than taking the time to masturbate.

David quickly dressed, going down to the kitchen to make breakfast for him and Max, as well as his own lunch. Max had forgotten a change of clothes, after drying off, he grabbed Fluffer and walked naked back up to his bedroom. David looked over at the stairs, seeing Max’s naked body as the boy went back to his room. Something stirred inside David, he blinked confused at the sudden tingling going through him.

“What was that?...I’ve never felt that kind of sensation before…” David took in a breath, his face feeling a little hot. With a shake of his head, he passed it off as part of his depression over the night before and put the food on the table.

Max came down after getting dressed, sitting at the table in front of David. “Sweet! Pancakes!” Max poured some syrup on the stack in front of him. “Oh yeah...David, I don’t want you to get too excited about this...Like seriously, don’t make a scene….” He stabbed his pancakes with a fork. “High school lunch kind of really sucks ass….Do you think you could make me a lunch for school?”

Tears instantly began to fall from David’s eyes. “Oh...Oh! Yes!” He quickly got out of his seat.

“Idiot! Eat your breakfast first!” Max shoved a piece into his mouth, his cheeks slightly pink. “I don’t want you making me a lunch today...I need to get a lunch box and shit first….”

“I’m so overwhelmed by all this…” David fanned his face with both hands. “You want to eat a homemade lunch! I will make sure you will enjoy it!”

“Don’t make this weird, David!” Max side eyed the living room. “I hate school lunch and you are a good cook….Also, when you make it don’t fucking make it some embarrassing designs or whatever...” He groaned. “Stop crying!”

David sniffled, wiping his eyes. “I promise to make you a nice homemade meal that won’t embarrass you! You have my word! I would never want to betray your trust and not want me to make you a meal again!” He happily started to eat his food.

“Good…” Max had a little bit of syrup drip on his lips, his tongue coming out to lick it away, licking his lips completely to make sure all the syrup was gone.

David went completely stiff, his hand tightening on his fork. The man’s heart suddenly was speeding up in his chest, another tingling feeling shooting through his body. Watching Max suck syrup off his fingers, David was horrified to realize he’d become hard. This was the first time he’d ever had this sort of reaction, he’d seen Max eat like this for years now, and he was now extremely confused by his body’s new reaction.

“You okay? You’ve gone pale all of a sudden...I hope you aren’t getting sick. You going to finish eating?” Max looked at the time, stuffing the remaining pancake bites into his mouth. “We should head out.” He got up and grabbed his school bag, pausing to look back at David, the man not moving. “Seriously, are you alright? Is this about that bitch? I can call Neil’s dad to pick me up if you need some time….”

“I….” David stared down at what was left of his pancakes. “Yes, please call Neil’s dad, I think I need to have some time to myself….”

Max stared at him with genuine worry. “David, if you want me to stay I-”

“No!” David’s voice raised in a panic. “I mean...No, you have to go to school. I think I just need to think about a couple things and I’ll call out of work for today….”

“...Alright....” Max frowned at the sudden mood change that happened. “I’ll call now. Don’t like...Kill yourself when I’m gone or anything okay?”

David let out an awkward laugh, eyes going slightly squinty. “No, don’t worry...I’ll be fine, Max. Just go to school and don’t worry about this.”

“If you’re sure…” Max knit his eyebrows together in concern. “I’ll be back after school is over….” He took his cellphone out, calling Neil, he kept glancing over at David. David was picking at his food nervously, taking small bites, and closing his eyes tightly. After a couple minutes, Max left to meet Neil’s dad outside.

David released his fork, it making a clang against his plate, his hands going to his face. “Oh gosh….This can not be happening….” His erection had gone away, but knowing he’d become erect watching Max eat, had him very concerned. The twenty-eight-year-old shakingly took the dishes to the kitchen, trying to clear his thoughts.

What could have changed? It had to have been a random reaction, right? He wasn’t actually turned on by a boy who’d just turned fifteen. David was Max’s guardian, he was finally earning the boys trust, and he couldn’t bear the idea of Max being disgusted by him. David leaned over the sink, beginning to cry again, this time out of being distraught by the thought of Max calling him a pedophile.

“It has to have been a one-time thing…” David gripped the sink. “I’m just having this sort of mental breakdown in a different way than what happened with Bonquisha….I’m taking my hurt feelings and projecting them on Max because he’s here for me…” He slammed his head into the sink, falling to his knees. “Is that actually worse? Fuck….” After a few moments, David pulled himself up. There wasn’t time for him to have a total breakdown, he had to call out of work.

“So, what made you call us to pick you up? Is something wrong with David?” Neil asked, sitting in the back seat with Max and Nikki.

Max leaned back in the seat. “Things didn’t work out with the woman he was dating….She ended up being a gold digging whore.”

“Do you want us to help you track her down and give her a piece of our mind?!” Nikki moved closer to Max. “We could totally kick her ass!”

“If she tries to contact David again, then we can, but I think what would be best is just to forget her.” Max cracked his knuckles. “If I ever see her again, I don’t know if I couldn’t hold back trying to kill the bitch.”

Once at school, Nikki went to the middle school, while Neil and Max went to the high school and to their different classes. In class, Max was distracted, spending most of the time twirling his pencil in thought, even accidentally snapping a pencil and having his classmates turn to look at him. Max couldn’t stand depressed David, it was worse now that he had feelings for him, even if David wasn’t acting as upset.

At lunch, Max groaned, slamming his head into the table next to his lunch tray. “This is really eating you up huh?” Neil took a drink of his soda. “It’s David, give him a couple days and he’ll be annoyingly happy again. Don’t get so worked up over it. I know he is like your dad now-”

“Not, my fucking dad….” Max turned his head to the side glaring at Neil. “He’ll never be my dad…”

“That’s because you have a crush on him.” Nikki stated, picking at her own food.

Max’s eyes went wide, he sat up quickly, looking at Nikki. “Don’t be ridiculous Nikki, there is no way Max……” Neil slowly came into realization. “...No fucking way….Seriously? You have a crush on David?!”

“Shut the fuck up!” Max put a hand to Neil’s mouth. “You can’t just yell that…”

“Yeah, he’s totally in love with David. Way to not notice signs with your best friend, Neil.” Nikki was kicked by Max. “Hey! Don’t kick me for stating the truth!”

Max groaned louder, slamming his head into the table a couple times, and resting his forehead on it. “How long have you noticed Nik?”

“Our first camping trip with just the three of us and David.” Nikki put a hand on Max’s back. “You agreeing to go camping willingly with him and the way you looked at him….I totally knew you had it bad then and it has gotten worse since.”

“Wait...Does that mean...Are you gay?” Neil kept his voice low.

Max tightly closed his eyes. “I’m not gay...I guess I’m bisexual….I love boobs and looking at porn of women, but like...It’s not like I don't also get turned on by the guys in porn…It’s really weird for me, because David is the only one I’ve felt this way for...”

“Do you think it is because he’s the first adult to actually show interest in your well being? Maybe it is a false crush, like because he has helped you so much and has given you a stable life?” Neil itched the back of his neck. “I mean…He is thirteen years older than you….And you did hate him for the most part back at camp.”

Max sighed, twisting his hands in his lap. “At first I did kind of worry about that being the cause. I honestly wish it was that, then I could try to get a crush on someone else….But fuck….” He squeezed his hands together tightly. “Thinking about him turns me on….Wanting him to be happy….How nice he is...It fucking makes me sick how into him I am…. I hate feeling like this….I hate knowing that there is no way he’d return my feelings...I hate that I’m like a lovesick girl.”

“Damn dude….” Neil stared at Max. “Maybe,uh, maybe you should think about finding someone else to date? There are loads of hot girls and probably some guys that you can ask out. Go on a couple dates, be a teenager, and maybe you might find someone to replace those feelings, so that shit doesn’t get super awkward for you and David.”

“Mmm...Yeah….” Max sat back up. “I probably should at least give it a try….It’s better than dealing with my actual feelings that are probably from me having father issues.”

“I didn’t mean it like that…” Neil flinched, feeling a little bad.

Max stood up, picking up his tray. “While I’m sure it isn’t father issues behind my feelings….I do think you have a point, I am a teenager, and I should try to date in my age group. I shouldn’t tie myself down to my feelings for David if it isn’t going to go anywhere, I’m too young to do this to myself.”

Nikki and Neil watched Max walk away. “Poor Max, he is totally in love with David.” Nikki shook her head, the bell ringing. “Aww..Time for me to go back to my school...I can’t wait for next year when I’m a student here…I’m going to miss all the awkward flirting Max is going to be doing and asking people out.”

Neil caught up to Max in the hall, suggesting he look into joining some school clubs and meeting new people. Max was a little hesitant, not really liking group activities and preferring to just go straight home to play his games, and be with David. When school was over, Max looked up the different clubs the school had and decided that he’d have to pick one to sign up to.

“What the fuck am I even thinking…” Max put the club list into his school bag. “I can’t believe I’m even thinking about joining a club….” He rolled his eyes. “David will be happy about it, but I can’t even tell him why I’ve decided to do it…”

“Ready to go Max?!” Neil yelled across the parking lot, standing at his dad’s car with Nikki.

“Yeah! I’m coming!” Max yelled back, walking quickly to the car. He wanted to get home as soon as possible, wanting to make sure that David was okay.

  
  


TBC


End file.
